From my book: Turning back the clock, the Skin Actives way

You can buy my book here.

At Skin Actives Scientific, we make superior skincare products because we use science to solve problems. These days we can find scientific jargon used in practically all advertising for skincare. Still, when you read the ingredient list, you will find out that the science is only being used for advertising and not in the actual formulation. Formulators are wasting efforts (and your money) because they could be using science as we do to improve skin health and appearance, but they don’t. All skincare products could be much better with minimal effort.
At Skin Actives, we review scientific and industry literature to find the best skincare ingredients. We are not distracted by myths, fancy stories, or scientific-sounding jargon; we evaluate information using scientific reasoning and a lot of previous knowledge. We also use an advanced biochemical methodology to produce proteins beneficial to the skin or prepare subcellular fractions if needed. We have the expertise to decide what ingredients can benefit the skin, find the best quality ingredients available, and if they are not available to purchase, we can synthesize them.
The following are some of the actives that can help restore cell function. For a more comprehensive list, please see our glossary. It would too long to list all the ingredients that can help with skin aging and sun damage, so I chose a few whose action mechanisms are better known.

What retinoids tell us about our bodies
Even if we ingest vitamins in our food and oral supplements, our bodies may not be directing enough of them to our skin (and hair). In our body, heart, kidneys, lungs, etc., are priorities, skin and hair are not. As we age, we need to apply vitamins topically, even if we take oral vitamins every day.
More is not always better. In general, retinoids tend to normalize cellular proliferation and differentiation. In the human epidermis, low concentrations of retinoids generally increase keratinocyte proliferation, but high concentrations can be inhibitory, an effect that is useful in the treatment of psoriasis.
The chemical structure is what matters, so not all retinoids are the same. For example, you don’t need tretinoin to make your skin younger (retinyl acetate will do), and tretinoin may upset your skin in many ways. Many people can’t use topical tretinoin because of its side effects, which include skin irritation. We know that this is not a problem with retinyl esters because they work just as well or better, don’t have serious side effects, and don’t require medical supervision. Go for retinyl esters.

Senolytics
This word is relatively new and comes from senescence (biological aging) and “lytic” (destroying). Senescent cells in our body may be old and malfunctioning, but if they don’t die, they can become a problem; the accumulation of senescent cells is harmful to the tissues where they reside. Chemicals that selectively kill senescent cells are called “senolytic.” The objective is to eliminate the old cells that are hurting the individual, delay the onset of overall aging, attenuate the severity of age-related diseases, and improve survival. Fisetin and quercetin seem to have senolytic activity, and as a bonus, quercetin is a disruptor of bacterial biofilms, acting as an antibiotic in some infections. Other chemicals may have senolytic activity, but we at Skin Actives prefer “old” ingredients known to lack side effects.

Actives to help skin stem cells
A good research paper to come out in recent years is Liu et al. (2019), named “Stem cell competition orchestrates skin homeostasis and ageing”. In this paper, the authors show, by using a variety of methods, that the presence of a “good” collagen 17 protein is very important for the success of stem cells when it comes to succeeding in the competition for space and survival. A cell that is expressing collagen 17 will multiply and prosper. One that does not express this protein will divide in the wrong way and disappear from our skin rapidly, without leaving “daughter cells” to maintain the skin barrier. Apocynin, a chemical present in some plants, gives an advantage in this tough competition by promoting the synthesis of collagen 17 and increasing the chances for survival of the mother cells derived from the dividing stem cells.
How does collagen 17 work its magic? The collagen protein COL17A1 can “sense” DNA damage. In young skin, DNA damage in a small number of epidermal stem cells promotes COL17A1 degradation, decreasing hemidesmosomes’ formation. These multiprotein structures anchor basal-layer epidermal cells to the basement membrane, connecting the epidermis to the dermis. Stem cells with high COL17A1 levels and high numbers of hemidesmosomes (‘fit’ cells) keep the skin youthful by spreading along the basement membrane through parallel cell divisions and displacing the badly attached, ‘less fit’ cells that have low COL17A1 levels. “Unfit” cells undergo perpendicular cell divisions and end up in the more superficial layers of the skin, shedding soon after. Aging, radiation, and certain genetic conditions cause a more general COL17A1 loss, causing skin thinning. If we could restore COL17A1 expression in stem cells, these cells would divide and generate healthy skin.

Which ingredients work for stem cells?
Any active ingredient that prevents cell damage and DNA mutation will be good for your stem cells. UV radiation and Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS*) reach deep into the skin and affect the stem cells present in the basal skin layer. Actives that promote “anchorage” of stem cells to the dermal-epidermal junction and those that provide nutrition and building blocks that the skin can’t make itself, like essential fatty acids, are good for the skin.
Which ingredients are useless? Label value ingredients like plant stem cell extracts.
What about harmful ingredients? Those that promote oxidative stress and inflammation, including benzoyl peroxide, and allergenic fragrances.

How to help your stem cells remain healthy
It is in your best interest to prevent mutations in your skin stem cells. Why? Healing and skin renewal depend on stem cells’ availability and genetic health in the epidermis’ basal layer. The long-lived stem cells reside in the basal layer. Even in people with dark skin, stem cells accumulate DNA damage caused by UV radiation and other environmental and endogenous factors.
Protect your skin from UV radiation by avoiding the sun, wearing a hat and sunscreen. Protect your skin from ROS* by using antioxidants that are effective in protecting from oxidative stress. And don’t allow your skin to see “skincare” ingredients known to cause oxidative stress like peroxides, with benzoyl peroxide included and hydroquinone. Many of the “fast and furious” skin treatments the industry offers will age your skin and can cause worse trouble in the long term.
Your skin needs anchors for stem cells and their descendants. Give your skin stem cells and daughter cells a helping hand. Some actives will promote the anchoring of the nascent cells to the dermal/epidermal junction, increasing their chances of becoming part of your skin and not being lost, thinning your skin. Go for apocynin to promote the synthesis of collagen COL17A1.

And, finally, about telomeres and sirtuins
First, telomeres. Telomeres protect the end of chromosomes from deterioration and fusion with other chromosomes. In eukaryotes, including us humans, telomeres shrink a bit every time a cell divides. In humans, aging and telomere shortening go together.
Telomerase is an enzyme that “replenishes” the telomere “cap” of the DNA. However, in most multicellular eukaryotic organisms, telomerase is active only in germ cells, some types of stem cells such as embryonic stem cells, and in certain white blood cells. Inactive telomerase is not bad because the steady shortening of telomeres with each replication in body cells may prevent cancer.
Oxidative stress accelerates the shortening of telomeres, one more reason why it is helpful to prevent it using antioxidants.
Sirtuins are enzymes (NAD+-dependent deacylases) found in humans, yeast, worms, flies, and mice. Sirtuins are proteins with a significant role in the cell: they control the enzyme that converts acetate, a source of calories, into acetyl CoA, a key entry point to cellular respiration.
Age-related disorders include obesity, metabolic syndrome, type II diabetes mellitus, Parkinson’s disease, and the “ultimate disorder”: aging. Because of the crucial role of sirtuins, it has been suggested that it may be possible to use them to control age-related disorders in various organisms, including humans.
Sirtuins are regulators of aging and longevity and respond to nutritional and environmental perturbations, such as fasting, DNA damage, dietary restriction, and oxidative stress. In general, sirtuin activation triggers DNA transcription to increase metabolic efficiency, stimulates mitochondrial oxidative metabolism, and resistance to oxidative stress. Sirtuins increase antioxidant pathways and facilitate DNA damage repair through chemical modification of repair proteins. Sirtuins’ suppression of cellular senescence seems to be through their delaying age-related telomere shortening, promoting genome integrity, and repairing DNA damage.
Resveratrol, NAD+, pterostilbene promote the activity of sirtuins. NAD+ is a substrate.
Interesting fact: resveratrol is produced by plants in response to infections by pathogens or injury. It may even help with fungal infection in humans! Plus, it is an antioxidant.
ROS BioNet will protect your skin from oxidative stress, preventing premature shortening of telomeres.
Apocynin inhibits an enzyme, NADPH oxidase, that increases oxidative stress by producing ROS* (reactive oxygen species). Use apocynin and decrease oxidative stress. Apocynin promotes the synthesis of a COL17A1 crucial for the anchoring of newly formed stem cells, and its end effect will be to accelerate healing, delay aging, and promote skin health. When it comes to hair, stem cells that make collagen 17 will keep producing hair, rather than becoming just one more skin cell (and there goes your hair!). We can expect that apocynin, through the promotion of COL17A1 synthesis, will prevent hair loss. And we know that it should decrease oxidative stress and slow hair greying. Apocynin does even more: it also decreases inflammation, an enemy of our skin and hair, by reducing oxidative stress and NADP(H) oxidase inhibition. If you have to face a polluted environment when you are stuck in traffic, apocynin will help your SAS ROS* terminator protect you.

DISCLAIMER: These claims have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease.