By Hannah Sivak, PhD

You probably want to understand what is about peptides that makes the skin care products that contain them so expensive. First, let me tell you that there is nothing magic about peptides. They are strings of amino acids linked to each other. Amino acids make up proteins, so peptides are like very short proteins.

If you forgot what amino acids are: relatively small molecules, the smallest is glycine (two carbons, one is the acid group (COO-) and the other has the amino group (NH4+) attached to it. There are many amino acids, but only 20 are common in proteins.

Nomenclature refresher: dipeptide (two amino acids linked by a peptide bond), tripeptide (3), tetrapeptide (4), etc. When you don’t remember the name of numbers in greek, use oligopeptide (oligo= few). Peptides are usually represented by a sequence of letters, one for each amino acid, and sometimes by a sequence of three letters for each amino acid.

The skin care industry tends to use synthetic peptides that mimic peptides occurring naturally and modifies them by attaching a fatty acid to one end. This fashion became possible thanks to methods initially developed to facilitate the work of scientists.

What is available
Skin Actives sells three actives that have a lot in common between themselves and are related to collagen, a protein that makes up a good part of the dermal matrix. Two of these actives are natural, Dermagen and "natural active peptides".

Dermagen, an easy to use solution of collagen peptides and hyaluronic acid, will provide the skin with building blocks for the very important dermal matrix.

Natural active peptides (also known as marine peptides) is a powder, soluble in cold water, made of just collagen peptides. At such a high concentration, they will provide not just building blocks but also will provide some extra barrier against water loss.

We also sell a synthetic peptide that mimics the procollagen fragment Lys-Thr-Thr-Lys-Ser (or KTTKS using the one letter nomenclature).  In 1993 Katayana et al. found that a portion of procollagen fibrils stimulated the synthesis of procollagen and fibronectin. They continued to study that piece of procollagen until they found the minimum sequence required to obtain the stimulatory effect, and that was KTTKS.  The cosmetic industry took advantage of this discovery, marketing a modified peptide, palmitoyl pentapeptide, a.k.a. Matrixyl, as an ingredient in anti-age creams like Strivectin.

Skin Actives Scientific also sells copper peptide, a tripeptide (three amino acids linked in a short chain) that carries copper in our plasma, and has been shown to accelerate healing.

We started selling argireline because, despite the lack of good evidence published in scientific journals, our clients tell us that it actually works. If you decide to go for argireline as a "freeze" ingredient, help it a little bit with GABA.

In short, there is a use for each of the peptides. Use the palmitoyl pentapeptide as a signal, use Dermagen to provide building blocks.  If you prefer a powder, go for the natural active peptides and, to be on the safe side, add the synthetic peptide as a signal to get your skin going. For healing, use copper peptide.

PLEASE NOTE: Signal peptides like Matrixyl and argireline are used in parts per million (ppm) concentrations because signal peptides are required at very low concentrations. Synthetic peptides are very expensive, so waste would be silly and very costly.   Don't believe it when you see "argireline 15%, matrixyl 20%", they are either lies or mistakes by people who don't know what they are talking about (very frequent in skin care).

Are you still confused? Write to us and we will help you mix your own, ultra-active anti-age cream.
 
Reference
Katayama K, Armendariz-Borunda J, Raghow R, Kang AH, Seyer JM. (1993) A pentapeptide from type I procollagen promotes extracellular matrix production. J Biol Chem. 268:9941-9944.