Could This Technology Replace Fillers for Skin Wrinkles?

Many skincare products promise collagen repair. A new study published this week sheds new light on how to effectively replace this vital protein. A novel mRNA delivery method uses extracellular vesicles to initiate collagen replacement in photoaged skin, according to researchers at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. A single injection increased collagen production and reduced wrinkle formation in targeted areas for two months. Researchers say the new delivery method could be used to treat a number of disorders including ones associated with protein loss associated with aging and hereditary disorders where genes and proteins are missing.

The research was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering and reported in Neuroscience News.

According to the authors, researchers use EV-encapsulated mRNA to initiate and sustain collagen production for several months in the cells of photoaged skin in laboratory models. It is the first therapy to demonstrate this ability and represents a proof-of-concept for deploying the EV mRNA therapy, said corresponding author Betty Kim, MD, PhD, professor of Neurosurgery.

“This is an entirely new modality for delivering mRNA,” said Kim. “We used it in our study to initiate collagen production in cells, but it has the potential to be a delivery system for a number of mRNA therapies that currently have no good method for being delivered.”