DNA injections may be safer way to smooth wrinkles than Botox

By Mark Waghorn via SWNS

Wrinkles have been smoothed in aging skin with injections of DNA, in a procedure safer than botox, scientists have revealed.

The revolutionary therapy boosts the production of collagen. It offers a safer alternative to current treatments.

Botox works by paralyzing muscles. Nasty side effects can include weakness, vision or breathing problems, trouble speaking or swallowing and loss of bladder control.

The new jab contains messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA for short. The molecule carries a genetic code - instructing cells to make proteins.

In experiments, bald mice were exposed to UV radiation for 60 days to trigger wrinkles, reports New Scientist.

After 28 days, those injected with the mRNA had the same number, on average, as peers that hadn't been exposed to the light.

The U.S. team used developed tiny carriers called EVs (extracellular vesicles) from human skin fibroblasts.

The study in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering is the first to demonstrate the successful use of EVs as a pharmaceutical therapy.

Corresponding author Professor Betty Kim, of the University of Texas said: "This is an entirely new modality for delivering mRNA.

"In this example, we used it 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."

The chemical is an extremely brittle biomolecule - making harnessing its power challenging.

Widespread deployment of mRNA vaccines to fight COVID-19 has greatly catalyzed has boosted its potential in medicine.

Delivery requires a carrier to safeguard the fragile molecules into the target cells. This is typically done by synthetic fats that cause irritation and inflammation.

They are not always biocompatible and are difficult to direct to a specific tissue.

The drawbacks do not create a significant problem for vaccines but can be limiting for other therapies.

Prof. Kim and colleagues used EV-loaded mRNA to program skin cells to produce collagen in the lab rodents and reduce wrinkle formation.

The payload replaced lost collagen in the deep dermal layers of the skin in mice experimentally aged using light.

The therapeutic EVs were delivered using a microneedle array patch that was applied to the skin for 15 minutes and delivered the drug uniformly.

The single injection improved collagen production in the targeted area for nearly two months.

Prof Kim said: "Therapies using mRNA may address a number of health issues from protein loss as we age to hereditary disorders where beneficial genes or proteins are missing or under-expressed.

"There is even the potential for delivering tumor-suppressing mRNA as a cancer therapy. So, finding a new avenue to deliver mRNA is exciting. There is still work to be done to bring this to the clinic, but these early results are promising."

Experts say the technology has the promise to serve as a universal mRNA delivery platform to treat various diseases beyond collagen replacement.