ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Molecular and Cellular Pathology
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Skin Barrier Dysfunction and Disease PathogenesisView all 5 articles
Antiphotoaging effects of a group of antioxidant peptides through downregulating matrix metalloproteinases and inflammation factors
Provisionally accepted
Yichao Huang*
Juxingsi SongZhengbang WangShaoqian ZhuYanan HuXinyue GanSai LuoQian HeLiming ZhangQianqian Wang- Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China
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Excessive ultraviolet B (UVB) exposure is the leading environmental contributor to the development of skin aging, also referred to as photoaging. We previously obtained a group of modified antioxidant peptides (WP5, LW5 and YY6), which were derived from marine organisms, through a single amino acid substitution, and demonstrated that the antioxidant peptides exhibited apparent protective effects against UVB-induced oxidative damage in human keratinocyte cells. Nonetheless, it remains uncertain whether they can alleviate skin photoaging caused by UVB. This research aims to investigate the anti-photoaging effects of the antioxidant peptides in vitro and in vivo and the underlying molecular mechanisms. We found that the antioxidant peptides significantly alleviated the senescence of HDF-a cells induced by UVB and suppressed the expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and the degradation of collagen I, and the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways, particularly the p38 MAPK pathway, might involve in anti-photoaging effects of the antioxidant peptides in HDF-a cells. Furthermore, an emulsion containing antioxidant peptides was prepared, and it was also found to inhibit the expression of MMPs and inflammation factors IL-6 and IL-1β in the mice exposed to UVB. Our results suggest that these antioxidant peptides might be applied as effective components in cosmetics for retarding skin photoaging in the future.
Keywords: antioxidant peptides, Anti-photoaging, Matrix Metalloproteinases, Ultraviolet B, Inflammation factors
Received: 18 Jun 2025; Accepted: 13 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Huang, Song, Wang, Zhu, Hu, Gan, Luo, He, Zhang and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yichao Huang, ychuang@smmu.edu.cn
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