Wrinkles Can Be Made to Disappear Without Botox Or Surgery

By: Dr Gary Weinberger

One only has to Google "anti-wrinkle creams" to realize that there is a plethora of products promising to eliminate fine and wrinkles. At the last cosmetic show in Paris a few weeks ago two new and innovative products showed a significant effect in reducing the depth of wrinkles and fine lines. These two products are SNAP-8, an anti-aging peptide and a High/Low Molecular Weight Hyaluronic Acid.

One of the most obvious signs of skin aging is increased wrinkling of the face. This occurs naturally overtime and results from certain biochemical, histological, and physiological changes that are enhanced by exposure to environmental contaminants. Secondary factors like the pull of gravity and pressure on the skin of the face during sleep also contribute to the formation of lines, wrinkles, and furrows. The molecular mechanism involved in aging of the face is directly related to changes in the conformation of the collagen triple helix, breakdown of elastin polypeptides and disorder in the packing of the lipidic matrix of the skin.

It has been clearly shown that these changes and the disturbance of the packing of the lipid matrix can be significantly avoided by modulating muscle contractions.

Muscles are contracted when they come in contact with a neurotransmitter released from inside of a vesicle at the level of the synapse (junction) between the nerve fibers and the facial muscle receptors. The SNARE (SNAP RECEPTOR) complex is essential for this neurotransmitter release at the synapse. This complex is formed by proteins VAMP, Syntaxin, and SNAP-25 (SyNaptosomal Associated Protein). This complex is like a cellular fishing hook which captures vesicles and fuses them with the membrane for the release of the neurotransmitter.

SNAP-8 mimics the terminal end of the SNAP-25 protein which then competes with the SNAP-25 protein for a position in the SNARE complex altering its formation. If the SNARE complex becomes destabilized, the vesicle cannot release neurotransmitters efficiently and therefore muscle contraction is reduced, preventing the formation of wrinkles and furrows.

The other innovative product is what I would call the next generation of Hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid comes two forms, a Low Molecular Weight molecule that is linear without cross-links and a High Molecular Weight molecule that has "S" shaped loops like a snake with cross-links between the loops. The low molecular weight HA is easily absorbed through the skin but begins to break down soon after absorption into the tissues due to the presence of a naturally occurring enzyme in the tissue called "hyaluronidase". The high molecular weight HA is not absorbed by the skin and has to be delivered by injection. This form of HA is more resistant to breakdown by "hyaluronidase" and is typical of injectable fillers like Juvederm.

The new HA combines these two molecular types so that when the low molecular HA is absorbed by the skin it pulls some of the high molecular weight HA along with it resulting in a better and longer lasting deep skin hydration and plumping with decreased water loss across the epidermis.

Both of these innovative products are new to the market and are not found in many cosmeceuticals because of their expense. If you can, however, find an anti-wrinkle product that contains these two ingredients it is well worth the cost and is certainly going to be safer, cheaper, and a milder alternative to Botulinum Toxin, topically targeting the same wrinkle-formation mechanism in a very different way.