Targets Involved in Skin Aging and Photoaging and their Possible Inhibitors: A Mini-review

Background: Skin aging is a natural process resulting from intrinsic (hormonal and genetic) and extrinsic (environmental) factors. Photoaging occurs due to prolonged exposure of the skin to ultraviolet radiation, accounting for 80% of facial aging. Introduction: Characteristics of aging skin include reduced elasticity, the appearance of fine wrinkles, uneven tone, and dryness. Clinical signs of photoaging involve the presence of deeper wrinkles, rough texture, dyschromia and a greater loss of elasticity compared to chronological aging. Methods: This work reported several scientific articles that used computational techniques, such as molecular docking, molecular dynamics and quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) to identify natural products and their derivatives against skin aging and photoaging. Results: The in silico analyses carried out by the researchers predicted the binding affinity and interactions of the natural products with the targets matrix metalloproteinase-1, matrix metalloproteinase-3, matrix metalloproteinase-9 and tyrosinase. Furthermore, some studies have reported the stability of the protein-ligand complex and the physicochemical properties of the studied compounds. Finally, this research proposes promising molecules against the targets. Conclusion: Thus, studies like this one are relevant to guide new research related to skin aging and photoaging.