Biotech company develops anti-aging molecule

Called AAGP, the company says it has dedicated its commercial development of the molecules to the cosmetics industry, as well as for human medicine and the biotechnology industry.

ProtoKinetix says that continued research into the molecules is showing rapid progress in the area of skin care, for which it can now cite published research on native antifreeze proteins and glycoproteins.

Most recently the company says a letter has been published from scientists at ITTEC Stem laboratories regarding specific research that highlights the technology's application in the anti-aging arena.

The letter claims that studies conducted by the laboratories have clearly demonstrated the UV protective capacity and anti-aging qualities of AAGP, which has proved that it is particulalry effective at protecting skin cells under UV exposure.

"Interestingly, the latest exposure experiments suggest that AAGP may not only be protecting cells from UV light but may also be acting at a molecular level to possibly induce repair of damaged cells,"​ the letter said.

ITTEC scientists Sammer Hussein and Michael Palumbo claim that their most recent data shows that when skin cells with AAGP are firstly exposed to UV light, and then other skin cells are exposed to UV light and AAGP is added afterwards, the skin cell advantage is claimed to be similar.

This indicates that AAGP can both protect and repair skin cells, opening up a broad specturm of possibilities in the skin care category.

Likewise, those skin cells that had been treated with AAGP were still said to be viable even eight days after the UV exposure, whereas other control skin cells were not.

"The fact that cells survived in the AAGP treated cells - even when treated only after UV exposure - and that viability was maintained even after the harsh cellular conditions suggests AAGP may be acting at the molecular level, as a signalling molecule, to protect and potentially repair cells or promote their survival,"​ the letter further stated.

The patented molecules were created in partnership with INSA, University of Rouen, France, and have been awarded the Francinov medal for chemistry.

The company says that the next step will be to get cosmetics companies and their ingredients suppliers involved in conducting evaluations of the AAGP molecules for specific skin care applicatons.