Current Insights into the Formulation and Delivery of Therapeutic and Cosmeceutical Agents for Aging Skin

Abstract

“Successful aging” counters the traditional idea of aging as a disease and is increasingly equated with minimizing age signs on the skin, face, and body. From this stems the interest in preventative aesthetic dermatology that might help with the healthy aging of skin, help treat or prevent certain cutaneous disorders, such as skin cancer, and help delay skin aging by combining local and systemic methods of therapy, instrumental devices, and invasive procedures. This review will discuss the main mechanisms of skin aging and the potential mechanisms of action for commercial products already on the market, highlighting the issues related to the permeation of the skin from different classes of compounds, the site of action, and the techniques employed to overcome aging. The purpose is to give an overall perspective on the main challenges in formulation development, especially nanoparticle formulations, which aims to defeat or slow down skin aging, and to highlight new market segments, such as matrikines and matrikine-like peptides. In conclusion, by applying enabling technologies such as those delivery systems outlined here, existing agents can be repurposed or fine-tuned, and traditional but unproven treatments can be optimized for efficacious dosing and safety.

Polymer-Based Hydrogels Applied in Drug Delivery: An Overview

“…By incorporating various mechanisms such as diffusion [117,118], erosion, or osmosis [74,118], these systems ensure a sustained and controlled release of the drug [119,120], maintaining therapeutic levels in the body for an extended duration [6,11,47,[67][68][69]. Ratepreprogrammed systems offer advantages such as reduced dosing frequency, improved patient compliance, and enhanced therapeutic outcomes [84,85].…”

“…This system employs a feedback mechanism to adjust the drug release rate in response to a physiological signal or drug concentrations in the body [91,133,134]. By integrating sensors [103,135] or biomarkers [136,137], these systems can continuously monitor drug levels or the therapeutic response [11,47,84,85] and modulate the drug release accordingly [65,138,139]. The dynamic control mechanism optimizes drug delivery [140,141], minimizes side effects [142,143], and maximizes therapeutic efficacy [144][145][146].…”

“…Carriers in drug delivery systems are designed to improve the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs by addressing their limitations and optimizing their delivery. Carriers are designed to transport drugs to specific sites within the body, enhance drug stability [150,151], control drug release [152,153], and improve therapeutic outcomes [84,85]. These carriers can also enhance drug solubility [71,117,118], protect drugs from degradation [154,155], enable targeted delivery [3,8,112], provide sustained release [64,156], and improve drug stability [150,151] and bioavailability [8,11].…”

“…The key ingredient in the mask is hyaluronic acid, which is a naturally occurring polysaccharide that can hold up to 1000 times its weight in water. The hydrogel mask is designed to adhere to the skin and slowly release the hydrating ingredients over time, leaving the skin feeling soft, supple, and moisturized [85].…”

“…By incorporating responsive components into the hydrogel matrix [72,73], such as temperature-sensitive polymers [74,75] or pH-sensitive moieties [76][77][78], drug release can be triggered [32,79,80] or modulated upon exposure to specific environmental cues [65]. This feature enables targeted drug delivery, where the hydrogel selectively releases the drug at the site of action [81,82], minimizing systemic side effects [8,11,83] and maximizing therapeutic efficacy [6,11,84,85].…”