Pharmaceutical Approach To Skin Aging

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
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Manufacture and sale of skin care products is one of the growing sectors in the pharmaceutical industry. Skin care has become the modern holy grail of the pharmaceutical industry and has catalyzed the growth of the industry. Wrinkling of the skin is a natural process but as people seek to reduce the rate of aging, the demand for anti wrinkle products is on the rise. There are different anti wrinkle products that are offered in the both medical and pharmaceutical industries. While medical industry concentrates on surgical procedures and non surgical procedures like injection of BOTOX and other gels, pharmaceutical industry offers a wide range of topical applications that work to reverse skin wrinkling. However, these products come with their own risk, with some ingredients postulated to cause cancer.
Aging and pre-orbital area
Aging can be defined as progressive accumulation of molecular modifications that are manifested in clinical changes. Aging process is naturally occurring and irreversible. The human skin, being deprived of fur like other mammals, is very sensitive to environmental stress and it presents the ...
... obvious signs of aging. Environmental factors leads to modifications of the morphological and biophysical properties of the human skin thereby exhibiting aging signs (Giaconomi and Rein, 2001). Apart from the environmental factors, there are endogenous factors like metabolites which are ingested or from inhaled substances that affects the skin because it is sensitive to endogenous hormonal levels. Other factors like ultraviolet radiation, pollution, infections, traumatism, smoking, and hormonal status have a role in aging of the skin. All these aging factors have one characteristic in common. They are able to directly or indirectly induce one or more steps in the micro-inflammatory cycle including the expression of ICAM-1 in the endothelial cells (Giaconomi and Rein, 2001). This triggers a process that leads to skin damage. ICAM-1 expression induce recruitment and diapedesis of immune cells that secret colagenases, myeloperoxidases, and oxygen species that eats into the extra cellular matrix through a lytic process (Giaconomi and Rein, 2001). The lytic process leads to damage of resident cells consequently triggering secretion of prostaglandins and leukotrienes. The whole process results to granulation of resident mast cells thereby closing the self-maintained micro-inflammatory cycle and consequently ECM damage or skin aging (Giaconomi and Rein, 2001).
Periorbital area is one of the most important areas in the body that marks aging. Eye-to-eye communication occurs in more than 80 percent of all interactions and the contact is made on the facial area directly to the eye, which means that any change in the area around the eye is most visible. The eye is considered as the window to the soul and it is used to convey different emotions. The orbital area conveys important information regarding the general health of the individual. It creates an impression of individual health, fatigue, interest, and even emotions. For most people seeking rejuvenation surgery, the eye area is always the first to receive attention. Aging in the periorbital mainly leads to the demarcation of the bony landmark in the area of orbital rim thereby unmasking the orbital fat packs and flatten the frontal projection of subcutaneous tissues. This leads to downward displacement of skin in the periorbital area.
Aging problem in the periorbital area is due to volume loss. As the muscles lose their tone with aging, there is decrease in total mass of the muscles and consequently loss of volume and collapse of the muscles around the periorbital areas (Giaconomi and Rein, 2001). Redundancy of the skin especially in the upper eyelid manifests early in life by the third decade. The early changes usually appear in loss of crisp definition in the palpebral lines. The skin around the orbital area consequently sags and by 6th and 7th decade, the skin sags and rests on the eye lashes (Giaconomi and Rein, 2001). The cumulative effect leads to a tired and hooded appearance.
Pharmaceutical approach
Skin ageing is today considered a pharmaceutical challenge rather than a natural process. The truth lies in the fact that skin ageing is terrifying, detrimental and has health effects. Ageing brings about wrinkles, which increases body vulnerability to diseases. Pharmaceutical industry has taken the issue of ageing as a challenge and provides clients with different anti-aging products, which can take be taken to the body through different routes from swallowing to topical application on the skin with an aim of restoring the youthful bliss. There are different aproaches that have been pharmacologically implemented in dealing with periorbital aging. There are both surgical and non surgical treatments that have been used to restore the volume in periorbital area. Although the focus of this study is on the topical processes, let us have a short review of surgical and other non surgical procedures before delving into the details of topical applications.
Surgical techniques mainly rely on grafting and removal of some parts of the face to make it regain its bliss. The most common technique is face lift or rhytidectomy, which is a surgical procedure that removes the wrongs and reduces any visible signs of aging. Surgical approaches include face-lift, dermabrasion, chemical peeling, laser-surfacing, and others. The increasing use of non-surgical treatment can be explained as a dramatic shift to the problem of skin wrinkling. Non-surgical treatments mainly occur through injections. One of these procedures involves injection of BOTOX, a drug that blocks nerve transmissions and relaxes the muscles that underlies the wrinkles in order to smooth the wrinkles (Keen, Kopelman, Aviv, Binder, Brin, & Blitzer, 2004). BOTOX has been used for more than 20 years after approval by FDA. Another type of non surgical approach is injection of hyaluronic acid gels through simple office procedures. Hyaluronic acid gels are used as volume fillers for patients who have problems with loss of volume in the periorbital area. Use of hyaluronic acid gel fillers has recorded remarkable improvements in vision, comfort, and even appearance (Keen et al., 2004). The results achieved through use of volume fillers are considered better than surgery. The use of hyaluronic acid gel fillers was first approved in 2003 by Food and Drug Administration and very few people thought that it would be applied to fill the periorbital area. The development of use of hyaluronic acid fillers was based on the belief that injection of the acid gels would fill the volume loss or collapse of the periorbital area, thereby contributing to aesthetic and solve functional eyelid problems (Keen et al., 2004). This was considered a minimally invasive technique that reduced health problems related to surgical procedures. Surgical procedures have relied on fat grafting or placement of other artificial materials to fill the volume. In addition to filling the volume, hyaluronic acid gels also stretch tissues. Fillers are not permanent. They have varied lifetime and can last for one year more once inserted in the eyelids. As the effect of fillers fade, they can be replaced by additional fillers (Keen et al., 2004). Hyaluronic acid gels are absorbable because they are made of sugar molecules that are present in the body. This makes them safest fillers in the market and the safest non-surgical technique. However, these procedures whether surgical or non surgical, have their own problems are mainly used in medical care set up.
The bulk of pharmaceutical response to the problem of skin aging lies in tropical applicants. Prevention of skin aging has become a holy grail for the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry with assertion that skin aging is a photoaging problem rather than a chronology problem (Keen et al., 2004). They delve on arguments that long term exposure to sun is a major catalyst for development of age spots and wrinkles. Therefore, the base of pharmaceutical approaches lies in assiduous work of cutting exposure to ultraviolet radiations. The development of anti-aging care in pharmaceutical industry can be categorized into antioxidants, alpha-hydroxyl acids, and topical retinoid (Griffiths, 1999). However, it is important to note that among the three, it is only retinoid especially tretinoin that has been documented to have ability to repair skin and improve its bliss.
Topical anti skin aging products comes in form of antioxidants creams, lotions, and ointments. Antioxidants can be described as substance that hunts oxygen-free radicals, which are known to damage body cells and therefore catalyze the process of skin aging (Peric, Buganj, Bubanj & Jancic, 2008). Free radicals have also been documented in relation to sun damage and skin cancers. Long term exposure to sunlight leads to depression of antioxidants in the skin and this is corrected through topical application of antioxidants ointments, creams, and lotions. These topical products are not washed away from the skin like the sunscreens, which means their protection lasts longer. There are different types of antioxidants including selenium, coenzyme Q10 and alpha-lipoic acid (Peric et al., 2008).

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