Using molecular modeling to develop innovative cosmetic active ingredients

The cosmetic market always asks for efficient and attractive active ingredients, and this is particularly true for slimming. A few years ago, it has been shown that spermine and spermidine, two naturally occurring polyamines, stimulate fat storage and inhibit fat breakdown. It thus appeared as a target of choice for developing new slimming ingredients. But how to inactivate them? Thanks to molecular modeling, we were able to identify a disaccharide, the sulfo-carrabiose, which can literally trap spermine and spermidine and inactivate them. Indeed, this molecular modeling study allowed to show that sulfo-carrabiose was highly complementary to spermidine and spermine regarding their spatial structure and could also create numerous electrostatic bonds. This result was confirmed in tubo showing that sulfo-carrabiose actually blocks spermine and spermidine. Moreover, this trapping leads to a significant reduction in lipogenesis and to a significant increase in lipolysis in cultured adipocytes. With this example, this article shows how scientific research is successfully applied to cosmetics.