Anti-Ageing: Dream or reality?

When looking at life expectancy, the progress of recent decades, and of course centuries, is enormous. While the life expectancy in Germany was about 25-35 years in the 16th century, it has increased to about 78-83 years in the 21st century.1 Therefore, within 500 years life expectancy has almost tripled. There are a multitude of reasons for the huge increase in life expectancy. However, the most important contributor to a prolonged life is a better standard of health. Health has improved considerably since the 16th century thanks to better housing, better nutrition, fewer accidents, but mostly due to the tremendous increase in scientific knowledge and great innovations in medicine and pharmacy. Much of this improvement has happened recently, in the last century, which is regarded to be the century of “won years of life,” because many diseases can now be cured, thus greatly contributing to longevity.

Scientifically, ageing itself has not yet been fully defined. Different definitions are being discussed and researched, and so far none of them have been generally accepted as the scientific definition. The reason for this is that ageing itself and the causes of ageing are not yet fully understood, thus making such a definition difficult as well.2-12 From a scientific point of view, it is also clear that an effective anti-ageing treatment of ageing are understood. As the ageing process is not yet fully understood, a wonder-working anti-ageing active ingredient, as described by Lukas Cranach, has not been found yet. We do not know if ageing ever will be fully understood in future, and if a “fountain of youth” can ever be invented in the future.

During recent years, and drawing on these theories, precise mechanisms that promote or prevent ageing have been discovered. Consequently, in a manner similar to the development of pharmaceutical drug products, active compounds that interfere with these mechanisms and slow down or prevent these specific processes have been developed. The most prominent examples are antioxidants, which are able to reduce the amount of free radicals. 13-18 Free radicals are generated in large quantities with every process in the body, and create oxidative stress.

The efficacy of an active does not only depend on the active substance used. It is the entire formulation that makes a product effective, ineffective, or even harmful. In cosmetics the vehicle (cream, gel, etc.) acts as a carrier that helps to transport the active in the correct concentration and at the right time to the desired place of action. The penetration efficacy of an active from its respective vehicle depends on many parameters, including the concentration of dissolved active in the vehicle, lipophilicity of the active and the vehicle, molecular weight of the active, and the type and concentration of penetration-promoting excipients. When developing effective anti-ageing cosmetics, all of these factors must be kept in mind to obtain the specified goal. When these factors are ignored, even a potentially highly effective anti-ageing active will not reach the desired site of action, and thus will fail to be effective at all.

The desire to reverse ageing is as old as humankind itself, and many documents confirming this can be found in history. The 500-year old fountain of youth as envisioned by Lukas Cranach has not yet been found, but many mechanisms that are involved in the ageing process are now understood, and these insights can help – at least in part – to slow down the ageing process. Cosmetic products can also benefit from these findings by using anti-ageing actives. However, effective anti-ageing products can only be effective if the formulation enables the transport of the active to the desired site of action – not only in the right concentration, but also at the right time. Achieving this goal is a challenge but should be a major goal for modern cosmetics of the future. Innovative formulations, smart carriers as vehicles for improved dermal delivery, and/or the use of instrumental cosmetics are professional tools to reach this goal. Modern anti-ageing formulations should be developed as dermocosmetics, with the anti-agei g properties of the final product, and not only the actives scientifically proven by in-vivo studies. Finally, the products should enable tailor- made dosing personalised for each consumer. Analytical methods to determine the individual needs of consumers have yet to be developed for many compounds, but are already available for the determination of many bio-physical skin parameters. Examples are the determination of TEWL, skin hydration, and skin elasticity. Therefore, even though the total reversal of ageing is not yet possible, slowing down the ageing process is possible today with modern cosmetics, when all the criteria – correct dose – correct time – correct vehicle – are met. If these requirements are overlooked, ignored, or simply not addressed, effective anti-ageing dermocosmetics will remain a dream. It is in the hands of formulation scientists to make this dream into a reality.

AUTHOR:

Prof Dr Cornelia M. Keck, Professor of  Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, 
Department of  Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy,
Philipps-Universität, Marburg, Germany
www.pharmazie.uni-marburg.de
cornelia.keck@pharmazie.uni-marburg.de