LAS VEGAS Dermatologists should tell their patients to be skeptical of "peptide" cosmeceuticals and to stick with proven agents, Dr. Kathy A. Fields said at the annual meeting of the American Society of Cosmetic Dermatology and Aesthetic Surgery.
Agents such as palmitoyl pentapeptide-3 have been shown to stimulate collagen production in a skin culture, but as with so many cosmeceutical products, none of the peptides has been proven to be effective in a published clinical trial or has any compelling scientific data, said Dr. Fields, a dermatologist in San Francisco who is a coinventor of Proactiv Solution, the popular acne treatment, and has her own line of cosmeceuticals, Rodan + Fields.
The peptides in cosmeceuticals may or may not penetrate the stratum corneum to any great degree, and they need to reach the dermis to be taken up by cells to have their effects.
"They don't last long," she said of the cosmeceutical peptides. "When you apply them on the skin, they go away rapidly. So they either don't penetrate or if they do, they may not have enough time or enough concentration to get to the target organs to make collagen."
Peptide-containing cosmeceuticals can also cost a lot, Dr. Fields said. StriVectin-SD, for example, costs about $135 for a 6-ounce tube when purchased from the manufacturer, and it contains palmitoyl pentapeptide as a reported active ingredient.
There is also little need for a patient interested in a skin rejuvenating regimen to use a peptide product because there are proven agents such as α-hydroxy acids and salicylic acid, and retinoids such as tretinoin and retinol.
Those are the agents she recommends to patients. "I love the old technology," she said.
If a patient does not tolerate a retinoid or one of the other older agents, she tells them to just use it twice a week to get started, rather than switch to a product that may be dubious. The patient can probably work up to using it more often.