Senescent cells accumulate with age in all tissues, including skin. These errant cells secrete inflammatory signals that degrade tissue structure and function when sustained for the long term. OneSkin is one of the earlier longevity industry companies, built on the development of a senotherapeutic compound called OS-01. The founders chose to take the topical, cosmetics regulatory pathway to market. It is a lot faster than drug development, but has drawbacks, such as being taken less seriously by the scientific community.
OS-01 reduces the burden of senescence in tissue models of skin, suggesting that it encourages senescent cells to undergo programmed cell death. But it still could be the case that it primarily functions by slowing the pace at which cells become senescent, allowing processes of clearance to catch up. If one looks at mTOR inhibitors applied at low doses to skin, they have been shown to act to reduce the burden of senescence over a period of months, and we know that mTOR inhibitors do not kill senescent cells.
Today's open access paper is the latest published by the OneSkin team, in which they show use of OS-1 to correlate with reduced systemic markers of inflammation in addition to improved skin function. This is an interesting result. Skin is by far the largest organ in the body, and as a result of this, it is thought that senescent cells in aging skin contribute meaningfully to inflammation throughout the body. The OneSkin paper isn't clear on how much of the skin for any given individual was treated with OS-1, and the control treatment should have been the OneSkin formulation minus OS-1 rather than a different commercial formulation. That and the relatively small study population means that we should take this less at face value and more as a strong incentive for someone to fund a much larger study of the effects of topical senotherapeutic use on systemic markers, whether with OS-1 or low dose mTOR inhibitors.
As the body's largest organ, the skin plays a crucial role in defending against external stressors. Skin characteristics change with age, decreasing skin barrier integrity and compromising skin and body health. This study aimed to investigate the potential of a topical formulation containing OS-01 (a.k.a. Peptide 14), a senotherapeutic peptide, to counteract age-related skin changes and their systemic consequences.
A randomized, double-blinded clinical trial involving 60 female volunteers aged 60-90 was conducted over 12 weeks. Participants received either an OS-01 topical formulation or a commercially available moisturizer control formulation. Skin parameters, subjective perceptions, and circulating cytokine levels were assessed. Skin instrumental analysis included transepidermal water loss (TEWL), skin hydration, and pH measurements.
Participants treated with the OS-01 topical formulation displayed significantly improved skin barrier function and hydration compared to the control group. Participant perceptions aligned with objective findings: after 12 weeks, 70% of participants in the OS-01 group noticed an improvement in general skin appearance versus 42% for the control group. The systemic levels of proinflammatory cytokines tended to normalize, with a significant decrease in IL-8 in the blood analysis of participants from the OS-01 group. On the other hand, the control group demonstrated an increase in a few circulating cytokines, particularly TNF-ɑ and IFN-γ. Moreover, GlycanAge analysis measuring participants' biological age suggested the slowing of systemic aging in the group treated with the OS-01 topical formulation.
The study suggests that the OS-01 formulation can impact skin health by improving the skin barrier function, potentially influencing systemic inflammation and biological age. In conclusion, the study supports that targeting skin health may contribute to better longevity outcomes, underscoring the skin's pivotal role in systemic aging and supporting an integrated approach to health management.
View the full article at FightAging
