Genetic cosmetics next big fad?

[Gob]

Cosmeceuticals: the beauty business revolution

April 26, 2010 - 2:50PM

Few of us believe the claims made by manufacturers about their cosmetics. But, says Richard Gray, a new generation of clinically approved 'cosmeceuticals', which alter the DNA in your hair and skin, could change for ever the way we look at make-up - and the ageing process

Claims about pro-vitamin formulas, pentapeptide face creams and poly-collagen serums have helped ingrain public scepticism as to whether beauty products actually do any good.

When a product says it can "smooth away the appearance of lines and wrinkles", does it smooth them away - or just make them less obvious?

For the first time, an event at the Science Museum in London this Wednesday will reveal the real science behind the $10 billion global beauty industry.

Speakers at Science of Beauty will reveal how scientists have garnered new insights into how our skin and hair behaves, why it changes as we age, and what beauty actually is in the first place.

These findings are being used to develop new products that are capable of far more than simply delivering moisture to the skin or making hair look superficially shinier, since such products can induce physical, biological changes in the body's cells.

It's a long way from the oily creams concocted by chemists in the early days of the cosmetics industry.

So dramatic are the developments, in fact, that some beauty firms are even starting to carry out clinical trials on their products to prove their effects.

"Cosmetic companies have always had to substantiate their claims, to show that what they are saying in adverts is actually true," says Prof Christopher Griffiths, a dermatologist at the University of Manchester.

"But they have not used rigorous clinical trials. What has changed in the past few years is that cosmetics companies are now starting to do this."

In 2007, when Prof Griffiths and his team carried out one of the first independent clinical trials, followed by a larger trial in 2009, and showed that a Boots skin cream had a biological rather than just a cosmetic impact, the results were remarkable. He proved that No 7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum, an anti-wrinkle cream lauded as a "facelift in a bottle", can actually restore the skin's structure. Boots sold more than a million units within a month.

"The public seemed to really appreciate the science," he says. "Products have to do what they say they will, rather than using some sort of sleight of hand. The landscape is starting to change, and it is moving more towards what we see in the pharmaceutical industry."

Prof Griffiths believes the old definitions of cosmetics are now no longer relevant, particularly as new breeds of so-called "cosmeceuticals" become available to consumers.

Cosmetics companies worldwide now employ teams of scientists who publish their research in respected, peer-reviewed journals.

Biologists at L'Oreal, for instance, have recently put work on the growth cycle of hair to good use.

Years of studying stem cells in hair roots have enabled them to alter the body's natural processes with beauty products.

One such innovation, due to be launched next month, is a mascara called Hypnose Precious Cells, which promotes the growth of longer eyelashes by increasing the body's natural three-month cycle before they fall out.

Already flying off the shelves at Boots is Biotherm Celluli Laser D Code, a $61 anti-cellulite cream that uses gene technology to stimulate the production of a protein which reduces the storage of the fat cells that create cellulite.

There's good news for men, too. L'Oreal's scientists have also developed a new treatment that can stop hair from turning grey.

They discovered it was possible to mimic an enzyme that protects the stem cells that give hair its colour.

Over time, the body's pool of melanocytes - stem cells found in each skin particle and hair follicle that produce and store pigment - dwindles. As the number of pigment-producing cells falls, the hair turns grey.

Scientists found that melanocyte stem cells lacked a crucial enzyme that was present in similar stem cells found in the skin, which do not lose colour with age.

By mimicking the effect of this enzyme, researchers found it was possible to maintain a healthy population of pigment-producing stem cells in the hair follicle for longer.

In due course, the company hopes to add the treatment to an ordinary shampoo or conditioner.

"The research we have been conducting with academic teams on adult hair and skin stem cells over 10 years will help us better understand their roles in tissue regeneration, skin ageing, skin pigmentation, hair growth and greying," says Dr Patricia Pineau, scientific director at L'Oreal.

"There are still a lot of unknown facts, but there is no doubt they will deliver new concepts."

Proctor & Gamble, another major cosmetics company whose products include Pantene, Olay and Nice 'n Easy hair colourings, claims it has been able to use advances made since the decoding of the human genome to identify 1500 genes involved in the ageing of skin.

The firm is now attempting to develop new products that can counter the effects.

Under regulations that govern the cosmetics industry, however, the companies are not allowed to make medical claims about their products without obtaining a drug licence through expensive and time-consuming clinical trials.

But in a move that is likely to blur lines between cosmetics and pharmaceuticals even further, both P&G and L'Oreal are now running clinical trials on products that could allow them to make medical claims about their effects.

L'Oreal has been carrying out trials on an anti-cellulite lotion, while P&G has been testing a cream that counters the effects of ageing from sun exposure.

Newby Hands, beauty director of Harper's Bazaar, believes that cosmetics companies need to cut through the smokescreen of pseudo-scientific babble and present their products to an increasingly savvy audience in an honest way.

"These days, people are not going to use products unless they actually work, so cosmetics firms need the credibility that science gives them. The science being used by cosmetics companies is impressive, but the way that is then twisted by marketing people is mischievous.

"Increasingly, we are seeing products that do more than the cosmetics companies are permitted to say, because they cannot make medical claims about their products."

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/beauty/ ... -tmqo.html