Unlocking the anti-aging potential: In silico analysis of astaxanthin, curcumin, quercetin, and resveratrol in modulating skin aging pathways

Multiple studies have linked aging to a result of the inflammatory response. Thus, there is a recognized need for cosmeceuticals that modulate inflammation pathways to prevent and treat aging. In this sense, four bioactive compounds were selected for their documented anti-inflammatory/antioxidant properties. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate whether the bioactive compounds astaxanthin, curcumin, quercetin, and resveratrol are effective in treating the effects of skin aging, using in silico analyses. Protein-protein interaction networks (PPINs) related to skin aging and the bioactive compounds astaxanthin, curcumin, quercetin, and resveratrol were generated using the Cytoscape plug-in to analyze the functional enrichment of recovered proteins. From these main networks, clusters and bottleneck networks were generated. Initially, 5 main PPINs were generated. From the clusters recovered from the main networks, 3 were selected from the general network and 11 from the specific networks. Through functional enrichment of the clusters, the biological process of response to oxidative stress was identified. Blood and blood-forming tissue, vascular, and immune system abnormality phenotypes were also observed, along with an increase in inflammatory response. Additionally, Reactome pathways related to interleukin signaling and detoxification of reactive oxygen species were noted. Finally, the key genes for each network were identified from the bottleneck networks: IL-6 (general and astaxanthin), TAB1 (curcumin), TNF-α (quercetin), and TP53 (resveratrol). Based on this research, the analyzed bioactive compounds suggest potential efficacy to be included in cosmetic products, as they are capable of reducing excessive oxidative stress and inflammatory processes, consequently preventing cellular aging.