Oleanolic Acid Nanofibers Attenuated Particulate Matter-Induced Oxidative Stress in Keratinocytes

Abstract

Airborne particulate matter (PM) is one of the indicators of air pollution, and it is also the main factor causing oxidative stress in the skin. Oleanolic acid (OA), a natural terpenoid compound, effectively inhibited PM-induced skin aging; however, OA has poor water solubility and skin absorption, which limit its application in medicines and cosmetics. The aim of this study was to prepare oleanolic acid nanofibers (OAnf) and evaluate the effects of OA and OAnf in PM-treated keratinocytes. The results showed that OA dissolved in dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) attenuated PM-induced reactive oxygen species overproduction, stress-activated protein kinase/Jun-amino-terminal kinase (SAPK/JNK) activation, and the expressions of inflammatory and skin-aging-related proteins. In addition, the nanofiber process of OA effectively improved the water solubility of OA more than 99,000-fold through changing its physicochemical properties, including a surface area increase, particle size reduction, amorphous transformation, and hydrogen bonding formation with excipients. The skin penetration ability of OAnf was consistently over 10-fold higher than that of OA. Moreover, when dissolved in PBS, OAnf displayed superior antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-skin aging activities in PM-treated keratinocytes than OA. In conclusion, our findings suggest that OAnf could be a topical antioxidant formulation to attenuate skin problems caused by PM.

Integrative transcriptome and single-cell sequencing technology analysis of the potential therapeutic benefits of oleanolic acid in liver injury and liver cancer

“…In Alzheimer's disease, oleanolic acid regulates UCP2 expression via STC-1 to attenuate oxidative stress and β-amyloid levels in N2a/APP695swe cells [ 9 ]. It has also been shown that skin damage caused by airborne PM2.5 particles can be alleviated by the antioxidant effect of oleanolic acid [ 10 ]. In hypertension, hypertension promotes endoplasmic reticulum stress and ROS accumulation in kidney cells, while oleanolic acid inhibits the progression of hypertensive nephropathy by reducing ROS levels [ 11 ].…”

Unlocking the Potential of Oleanolic Acid: Integrating Pharmacological Insights and Advancements in Delivery Systems

“…Drug loading was 98.19 ± 4.82%, and the encapsulation efficiency was greater than 99%. OAnf significantly improved water solubility (998.7 ± 58.32 µg/mL) and skin penetration (45.27 µg/cm 2 ) at 4 h compared to OA alone [ 179 ].…”