Targets Involved in Skin Aging and Photoaging and their Possible Inhibitors: A Mini-review

Background: Skin aging is a natural process resulting from intrinsic (hormonal and genetic) and extrinsic (environmental) factors. Photoaging occurs due to prolonged exposure of the skin to ultraviolet radiation, accounting for 80% of facial aging.

Introduction: Characteristics of aging skin include reduced elasticity, the appearance of fine wrinkles, uneven tone, and dryness. Clinical signs of photoaging involve the presence of deeper wrinkles, rough texture, dyschromia and a greater loss of elasticity compared to chronological aging.

Methods: This work reported several scientific articles that used computational techniques, such as molecular docking, molecular dynamics and quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) to identify natural products and their derivatives against skin aging and photoaging.

Results: The in silico analyses carried out by the researchers predicted the binding affinity and interactions of the natural products with the targets matrix metalloproteinase-1, matrix metalloproteinase- 3, matrix metalloproteinase-9 and tyrosinase. Furthermore, some studies have reported the stability of the protein-ligand complex and the physicochemical properties of the studied compounds. Finally, this research proposes promising molecules against the targets.

Conclusion: Thus, studies like this one are relevant to guide new research related to skin aging and photoaging.