Valeria Consoli, Salvatore Petralia, Luca Vanella, Maria Gulisano, Ludovica Maugeri, Cristina Satriano, Lucia Montenegro, Angela Castellano, Valeria Sorrenti
Department of Drug and Health Sciences, University of Catania Via Santa Sofia 64 95125 Catania Italy
CERNUT-Research Centre for Nutraceuticals and Health Products, University of Catania 95125 Catania Italy.
RSC Adv. 2024 Mar 4;14(11):7655-7663. doi: 10.1039/d4ra00291a. eCollection 2024 Feb 29.
Nowadays, several studies have highlighted the ability of snail mucus in maintaining healthy skin conditions due to its emollient, regenerative and protective properties. In particular, mucus derived from has been reported to have beneficial effects such as antioxidant, antimicrobial activity and wound repair capacity. To enhance antioxidant activity of snail mucus, it was extracted in a hydroalcoholic solution and consequently freeze-dried. The obtained snail mucus extract (SME) was indeed endowed with higher antioxidant activity observed in cell-free models, however it was not possible to test its effects in cellular models as it creates a thick film on the cell surface. Therefore, in order to enhance beneficial effects of snail mucus and extend its potential use, SME was used to develop snail mucus extract-coated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs-SME) which exhibited anti-inflammatory properties on non-tumorigenic cells. LPS-induced inflammation in human NCTC keratinocytes was used as model to investigate the cytoprotective effects of nanoparticles. Co-treatment with LPS and AuNPs-SME significantly reduced pro-inflammatory cytokine transcription. Moreover, we demonstrated that AuNPs-SME not only can be used for anti-inflammatory treatments, but also as a sunscreen and antioxidant for potential cosmetic applications. Furthermore, AuNPs-SME's ability to selectively inhibit the growth of two human melanoma cell lines without affecting immortalized human keratinocyte viability in the same conditions was assessed. Thus, we demonstrated that snail mucus is suitable for creating innovative formulations and it can be considered a valid candidate for cosmeceutical applications to enrich the snail mucus based anti-age and sunscreen products already present on the market. Moreover, innovative formulations containing snail mucus can be potentially used for the treatment of specific skin neoplasms.
如今，多项研究强调了蜗牛黏液因其具有润肤、再生和保护特性而在维持皮肤健康状态方面的能力。特别是，据报道，源自[具体来源未提及]的黏液具有抗氧化、抗菌活性和伤口修复能力等有益作用。为了增强蜗牛黏液的抗氧化活性，将其在水醇溶液中提取，随后冻干。所获得的蜗牛黏液提取物（SME）在无细胞模型中确实具有更高的抗氧化活性，然而，由于它会在细胞表面形成一层厚膜，所以无法在细胞模型中测试其效果。因此，为了增强蜗牛黏液的有益作用并扩大其潜在用途，SME被用于制备包覆有蜗牛黏液提取物的金纳米颗粒（AuNPs - SME），该纳米颗粒在非致瘤细胞上表现出抗炎特性。用人NCTC角质形成细胞中脂多糖（LPS）诱导的炎症作为模型来研究纳米颗粒的细胞保护作用。LPS与AuNPs - SME共同处理显著降低了促炎细胞因子的转录。此外，我们证明AuNPs - SME不仅可用于抗炎治疗，还可作为潜在化妆品应用中的防晒剂和抗氧化剂。此外，评估了AuNPs - SME在相同条件下选择性抑制两种人黑色素瘤细胞系生长而不影响永生化人角质形成细胞活力的能力。因此，我们证明蜗牛黏液适用于制备创新制剂，并且可以被认为是用于化妆品应用的有效候选物，以丰富市场上已有的基于蜗牛黏液的抗老化和防晒产品。此外，含有蜗牛黏液的创新制剂可能潜在地用于治疗特定的皮肤肿瘤。
