The secret of snow bacteria reveals the next cosmetic revolution

Few expected that we would find the real key to youth in central Dalmatia, and from a life settled in the snow. We spoke with the academician prof. Ph.D.Sc. Miroslav Radman about everything around the change of the aging paradigm, which also inspired a large French cosmetic giant.

The town at the foot of Marjan, which is locally called the most beautiful town in the world, is usually an association to summer enjoyment and the smell of the sea. Walking through the Marjan forest, we come across a place ideal for thinking, creating and creating. The Mediterranean Institute for Life Sciences, hidden among the treetops, has become the center of a new paradigm in the study of aging under the leadership of prof. Radman, a geneticist and molecular biologist who devoted his 40-year long career to studying the mechanisms of restoring the most important code of our organism.

The real culprit of aging

We begin the conversation by emphasizing that the cosmetic industry is not as obsessed with any acid as it is with deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA. Protection of DNA is the primary goal of our organism. Although the body has mechanisms to protect this essential core using proteins that repair damage, they are not always perfect in performing their duties. “When our cells are exposed to radiation (for example from sunlight) or any oxidative stress, then all proteins, including those that repair DNA, will be increasingly oxidized. As oxidized they become non-functional. This is inconvenient, because proteins – directly or indirectly – perform all life functions. DNA is information, and proteins are functions! Damaged by oxidation, they are not active enough to repair all the damage,” explains prof. Radman. Already for years I’ve been hearing about DNA protection, and Prof. Radman refers me to proteins. Life is proteins. DNA doesn’t do anything, it’s just an instruction for protein synthesis, but it doesn’t do anything by itself. However, proteins perform all functions including copying genes. Therefore, life = the function of all proteins, emphasized prof. Radman. The fact the most important thing to protect is skin proteins is the answer to the question: What is the next cosmetic revolution?

A completely new direction

Back in 1962, Tomas Kuhn concluded that revolutions in science do not occur through the improvement of knowledge, but rather occur when a new discovery forces a paradigm shift. After prof. Radman was admitted to the American Academy of Sciences and Arts, the president said that Radman changed the DNA-centric to the protein-centric paradigm of life. In order to prevent or slow down the aging of all cells in the body, it is not necessary to protect the DNA but the proteome, i.e. a complete set of the proteins in the organism. Although physics has not yet found a theory of everything, it seemed to me that in the field of skin aging we have exactly that. When I asked prof. Radman, if he agrees with me, his face visibly lit up with my comparison. Yes, exactly! Insufficient protection of the proteome is the cause of all forms and consequences of aging – he concluded and added: I think we have enough reason, after 15 years of research, to believe that the chemistry of aging is actually corrosion or oxidation of proteins, and everything else is a consequence of that reminds Prof. . Radman. Now that we know we need to protect the proteome, the question arises how to do it? Antioxidants are not enough, prof. Radman instructed me. The answer must be found in the microorganisms that do this very well. The solution to the problem turned out to be so simple that it seemed weird no one had figured it out before. So the key to youth was found in Paris in a snowflake.

There is something creative in the air

Whoever said that we won’t find the answers we’re looking for by looking at the sky underestimated the power of microorganisms that float in the air. Dr. François Xavier Pelley, one of the researchers and external advisors of Professor Radman’s Institute, knows this best. Namely, one snowy night in Paris, Dr. Pelley let snowflakes fall on a Petri dish.

Not expecting much, but with the curiosity of a scientist, Dr. Pelley came upon a serendipitous discovery. Soon the bowl became full of intense colors, and that meant only one thing – there was life in the snowflake. The interesting and powerful snow bacterium Arthrobacter Agilis was discovered there. By itself, it is not that interesting until we understand what conditions it went through without a scratch with her DNA completely intact. These are conditions that would cause death to any other organism. What does such a tiny microorganism know that we don’t?

The secret of the snow bacteria

There are two mechanisms for protecting proteins from damage. The first is through antioxidants that neutralize free radicals, and the second is through chaperone molecules that coat proteins, protecting them from other causes of damage. Chaperone molecules are also interesting because, depending on the degree of damage, they can even correct the resulting scratches and restore the function of the protein. I returned to the initial question. What do we get from snow bacteria? The answer is bacterioruberin, which has both antioxidant and chaperone properties.

But knowing that our body produces antioxidants and chaperones, the question arises, why is the self-preserving mechanism of snow bacteria important to us? It’s a matter of the size of our organism. When there is a lot of damage, the body simply cannot produce enough antioxidants and chaperones fast enough to cover all the damage at once. Antioxidants that we produce ourselves, therefore, are not always enough? – I repeated. For certain situations, they are not enough – Prof. Radman answers. With aging, damaged proteins accumulate, including those that produce antioxidants. The longer we live, the more oxidized proteins we will find in our cells and will be de facto and functionally older. – concludes prof. Radman. Bacterioruberin is a special molecule, because it has both antioxidant and chaperone properties. It is amazing how such a tiny organism manages to produce a compound that has such a powerful effect.

Innovation from Split in a French brand

In that whole story, except that I couldn’t be more amazed at the genius of the simple mechanism and the key to the whole story, it is also interesting that such big brand like NAOS used the research from the Institute from Split for its next product. I shared this thought with the professor when we were finishing the conversation, and then he revealed to me another note of the whole innovation.

We were lucky that we agreed and contracted so that we would have absolute and total freedom of research – Radman explains to me and continues: We are interested in the new. The goal of our research is not the application of the known, but the discovery of the unknown, and then it is up to them to have an idea of ​​how to use that new discovery into something useful. We have the freedom to look with experimental light into the darkness of ignorance and can’t wait to be surprised, to see something that no one has seen before. And then, given what we have seen and discovered, NAOS, which still has a duty to justify the investment, can continue development towards something useful like Age Proteom. Then he adds: I still have to pay a compliment to NAOS. Before they knew we were going to reveal anything, they put their trust in us. They bet on us. The first 7-8 years were absolutely nothing, so I’m really grateful to them, concludes Professor Radman with pride.

We said goodbye with the hope that we will have the opportunity to talk again. Everything I assumed about skin care will have to change. A healthy proteome is therefore the key to youth. If we keep proteins healthy, the whole body can be in harmony for longer. As a man who is in search of simple harmony as the answer to everything, it should come as no surprise that his Institute is responsible for the next cosmetic revolution.