ABSTRACT

Nowadays, the risk of UV-induced skin damage is more and more increasing due to climate change. The skin alone is not equipped to protect itself from the sun. Sunscreens are the only strategy to reduce UV exposure. Unfortunately, they cannot 100% block UV light. In addition, sunscreens can provide the consumer with a false sense of total protection. Here, a new strategy, on top of using sunscreens, is introduced by boosting the skin’s own protection using a glucose-mannose biopolymer (GMB). Produced through fermentation of upcycled molasses. This active biopolymer with sunscreens ensures that the skin is optimally prepared for a tropical summer. GMB improves the tan, which contributes to the first UV barrier. Secondly, GMB increases cell survival and the activity of the skin’s immune cells. When the immune cells are more active, GMB indirectly results in improved DNA repair, skin soothing, and skin purifying. The key here is that GMB enhances communication and collaboration between all skin cells. Finally, when UV still damages the skin, GMB slows down the premature ageing process. Thus, GMB is the ingredient of choice; suitable for any cosmetic application to get more beautiful and better-protected skin. Together with sunscreen, GMB offers a holistic approach and is an essential addition when consumers are so much more exposed to UV radiation.

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In the past, people were only exposed to the sun during their two-week vacation. However, today there is a steady increase in sun exposure because of global warming.

Although some people love these tropical temperatures, being so much more exposed to UV radiation increases the occurrence of skin cancer dramatically. To put this in perspective, skin cancer is the most occurring type of cancer.

Despite the powerful protection of sunscreens, there are also downsides. First, sunscreens give a false sense of safety; people stay longer in the sun without reusing sunscreen. Secondly, sunscreens need to be sufficiently reapplied every two hours or if someone does an activity that readily removes the sunscreen, such as swimming.

Finally, it is easy to miss a spot. People are sometimes not careful enough when it comes to sunscreens, which come at the expense of precious and beautiful skin. Even when sunscreens are used meticulously, the skin is still in danger.

UV radiation causes disastrous permanent molecular damage. When the damage is in a critical site of the DNA, the cell turns rogue. Such a cell no longer follows protocol and can mutate into a cancer cell. Luckily, cells have a safety mechanism to prevent mutation. They die for the greater good.

Sun-burned skin turns into a complete wasteland of dead and damaged skin cells. The ones who died did it to prevent skin cancer. In addition, UV radiation disrupts the skin cells, leading to inflammatory disorders.

Other consequences of excess UV light are premature ageing and actinic keratoses. The latter is a condition where the skin develops dry scaly patches because of sun damage.

Cell types are involved in UV protection

To understand how to better prevent cells from mutating, it is important to know which three epidermal cell types are involved in UV protection. First, 90% of the skin consists of keratinocytes. These cells form a barrier to protect the inner world from the hazards of the outer world, like water loss, pathogens, and UV radiation.

They also produce essential proteins that protect the melanocytes and optimize their performance. The second cell type is the melanocyte. The melanocyte is a dendritic cell. It is famous for pigment (melanin) production.

Lastly, there is the immune cell of the skin (Langerhans cell), which is efficient in repairing, protecting skin cells, and cleaning up mutated cells.

High-tech defence mechanism

Together, these cells form a high-tech defence mechanism against UV radiation. All three cells are constantly with each other in communication to assure optimal protection of the whole skin.

The primary defence mechanism is the pigmentation system. Although pigments are produced by the melanocyte, it is the keratinocyte that starts the whole pigmentation cycle. UV radiation induces the production of endothelin-1 (ET-1) and α-MSH by the keratinocyte. ET-1 enhances melanocyte growth, and it leads to a higher tyrosinase activity; it improves the overall performance of the melanocyte.

Tyrosinase is an enzyme that is involved in the production of the darker pigment eumelanin, which at the same time absorbs UV light and is a powerful antioxidant that protects the keratinocyte. On top of that, α-MSH promotes the production of eumelanin

Together, these messenger proteins work synergistically to activate melanin production and to optimize the distribution of these protective molecules into the skin cells. ET-1 and a-MSH are not only improving the performance of the melanocyte, but they also protect the melanocyte against reactive oxygen species (ROS), cell death, and mutation.

The melanocyte has long dendrites that reach throughout the epidermis. The eumelanin is delivered from the melanocyte to the keratinocyte through these dendrites. The mechanism can be compared to a tattoo syringe (Figure 1A).

The pigment positions itself at the sunexposed side of the cell in order to protect the DNA (Figure 1B). The more pigmentation, the lower the chance that the skin is damaged by UV radiation. Our pigmented layer of skin cells is like sunscreen.

However, this sunscreen is not on the skin, like mineral and chemical sunscreens do, but is inside the skin. There is no need for reapplying every two hours and the melanin is perfectly distributed all over the skin. Melanin works all the time even after swimming.

The second defence mechanism deals with the malicious ROS that are generated from UV radiation. ROS, also known as free radicals, are highly reactive chemicals. When there is too much ROS present it leads to oxidative stress and consequently cellular damage, which includes lipid peroxidation, fragmented DNA, and cell death.

In addition, ROS leads to the degradation of collagen, causing premature ageing. Fortunately, the skin does not give up. The immune cells deliver powerful antioxidants, such as glutathione, to protect the keratinocytes against ROS. The immune cells also produce growth factors to support the correct growth of collagen.

The final major defence strategy is to repair cell damage. Cells are very resilient and have developed clever mechanisms to repair critical DNA damage.

However, when the cell decides that the damage is beyond repair, it sacrifices itself. This process of programmed cell death is called apoptosis. The keratinocytes also get help from the immune cells to repair their DNA.

Giving nature a helping hand

Unfortunately, the skin’s own defence suffers from a paradox between the protection from pigmentation and the immune system. On one hand, sun exposure is needed to fully activate the keratinocyte-melanocyte UV protection, while the immune system is too damaged to work efficiently.

On the other hand, during limited sun exposure, the immune system is fully operational, while no protective eumelanin is produced. Limited UV light occurs during winter and when a high SPF cream is used. Due to this paradox, the skin’s own protection is restricted and can never reach its full potential.

To compensate for this gap, we apply sunscreens. This significantly lowers the dose of UV that penetrates the skin. Unfortunately, this also lowers the production of highly protective eumelanin.

So, there is a need for improvement. The use of sunscreens leads to a less intense tan, which causes people to expose themselves more to UV light. A novel approach to solve the paradox and to combine tanning with optimal protection is to boost the skin’s own defence strategy on top of using sunscreens.

A glucose-mannose biopolymer (GMB) combined with a water-soluble glucan, and low molecular weight sodium hyaluronate makes our skin’s defence independent from the amount of UV exposure. GMB guarantees that our defence is working all the time.

GMB is a molecule that supports the communication between all the protective cells of the skin. This article highlights that UV protection can be significantly improved by maximalizing the skin’s own defence system under all circumstances.

GMB maintains this improved defence under all circumstances, with or without UV exposure, by acting directly on the keratinocytes and the immune cells. Without UV, GMB ensures that the keratinocytes are still producing α-MSH.

Moreover, GMB improves the α-MSH and ET-1 production during sun exposure. Because GMB results in more signals for pigmentation, communication with the melanocyte is improved. As a result of this, the melanocyte is performing optimally, even under reduced UV light.

In addition, GMB improves the activity of the immune cells even under intensive UV exposure. GMB solves in this way the paradox between tanning and skin protection.

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An active ingredient that offers total UV skin protection

GMB unlocks some impressive activities in the skin, such as tanning, anti-ageing, DNA repair, and purifying of the skin.

Tanning

The most prominent activity that GMB offers is improved tanning. GMB improves tanning on four levels: faster tanning, more intense tanning, prolonged short-term tanning, and prolonged long-term tanning. All these effects can be derived from the fact that GMB supports the keratinocyte’s production of ET-1 and a-MSH.

As described above, these proteins motivate the melanocyte to produce protective melanin, even when UV light is limited.

Twenty-two volunteers were monitored to evaluate the rate and intensity of tanning. The use of 0.06% GMB was compared to a placebo. An astonishing 90% of the volunteers stated to tan two days faster with GMB compared to the placebo. Moreover, it was clear that the GMB lead to more intense tanning. The GMB-treated skin was significantly darker for the majority of participants (Figure 2)

The study also tested how long the tan persisted. When the participants stopped using the 0.06% GMB treatment, they all experienced a tan that was still present ten days longer than the placebo treatment (Figure 3).

The ultimate strength of GMB is that the tan persists over a long period. The individual typology angle (ITA) was measured before and after a three-month 0.005% GMB daily treatment for 37 people. The ITA is a measurement for skin darkness; the darker the skin, the lower the ITA.¹

After three months, the ITA was still at the level as before the study (Figure 4). Thus, it is still possible to maintain a tan that was acquired in summer until the Christmas dinner party.

Premature skin ageing

UV irradiation leads to premature skin ageing because of the generation of an excess of destructive ROS.^2,3 This ROS destroys collagen fibres. Collagen is the main support of the skin.

All this deteriorated collagen needs to be cleaned away. This cleaning job is performed by the enzyme matrix metalloproteinase (MMP). More collagen destruction needs more cleaning up. This leads to a higher production of MMP.

Surprisingly, if the skin is exposed daily to the sun for just five to fifteen minutes, collagen destruction is significantly increased and therefore is the MMP production. This highlights again the importance of UV protection.

Since MMP concentrations are increased during sun exposure, it can be used as a biomarker; a molecule used to assess the risk of premature ageing. Three types of MMPs were used as the biomarker for follow-up: MMP-1, MMP-2, and MMP-9.4.

A concentration of 0.06% GMB results in a decreased gene expression of MMPs (Figure 5). This implies that the quality of collagen is maintained during UV exposure, meaning that the skin.

Skin purification

An activity often neglected is the purification of the skin after UV exposure. The skin needs to be purified for three reasons. Firstly, damaged skin allows microorganisms to penetrate easier into the skin

Secondly, cells with DNA damage beyond repair need to be properly disposed of, otherwise, they mutate. Thirdly, UV light transforms the skin into a battlefield with wounded skin cells. Plasma is leaking out of the cell, destroyed proteins are scattered all over. All this debris needs to be removed to keep the skin healthy

Peroxides are an example of ROS and until now, ROS was described as dangerous. However, a controlled and targeted use of ROS is necessary for cellular processes.⁵

Moreover, immune cells use these peroxides as ammunition to combat invading pathogens and to eliminate debris and skin cells with DNA damage beyond repair. A comparison between 0.10% GMB and placebo showed that immune cells produced more purifying peroxides with GMB (Figure 6). So, GMB offers a unique purification that ensures that skin processes run smoothly, resulting in clean and elegant skin.

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DNA repair

Another big perk is that the immune cell gets additional help from GMB in its attempt to repair the DNA damage. GMB supports the immune cells to protect the skin cells from cell death and DNA mutations.

This is necessary as the keratinocytes increase the production of α-MSH, and ET-1 significantly. α-MSH is very important in the early antioxidant responses to UV. Therefore, an increased α-MSH level reduces oxidative cell damage._⁶

Both α-MSH and ET-1 act as survival factors for the melanocyte.7 When the DNA of the melanocyte is severely damaged, the cell stops proliferating and decides whether it can still repair the DNA, or it will undergo apoptosis.

With the increased level of α-MSH and ET-1, the melanocyte will choose more often to repair the DNA. The cell death of the keratinocytes is significantly decreased in the presence of 0.06% GMB after irradiation of UV for five hours (Figure 7).

Finally, the immune cells also increase the production of glutathione in the presence of GMB. Glutathione is one of the most powerful endogenous antioxidants

In situations where there is so much ROS present from the UV light, it is a welcome gift to have more molecules to scavenge the ROS. This means that GMB helps in protecting and repairing skin cells.

Conclusion

When all the benefits from Glucose-Mannose Biopolymer are combined with the use of sunscreen, the result is a holistic approach to ultimate sun protection. GMB improves communication between all protective skin cells.

This innovative UV protection approach results therefore in a 3D-defence strategy; sunscreens provide the first layer of protection, and GMB boosts the protection deeper within the whole skin. GMB is capable of improved tanning, purification of the skin, and promoting DNA repair

On top of that, collagen is also protected, and the skin will be more beautiful in the long term. This 3D-defence system is very relevant in these days when there is an increased UV exposure due to the current climate status

However, GMB is a very useful ingredient in day creams or make-up to provide additional skin protection. So, GMB is the ingredient to bring any cosmetic formulation to the next level and give the skin a kiss of beauty.

References

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