French researchers from Ifremer and CNRS have developed a solution which, activated with light, eliminates certain bacteria responsible for acne.
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Treating acne with microalgae: this is what researchers from Ifremer and CNRS are proposing. In October, they filed a patent for an anti-acne cream based on microalgae, Ifremer announced Monday, December 13. The main ingredient “dermatological composition” is extract from Skeletonema marinoi, mentions the patent. This microalgae, which is a kind of plankton, is a common species in the Atlantic Ocean. Until now, it has been used in particular to feed oyster larvae in aquaculture.
Researchers from Ifremer and CNRS were initially working on the potential anti-cancer properties of this algae. However, they realized that it was very effective in the fight against three bacteria of the skin responsible for acne. With the help of the universities of Limoges and La Rochelle as well as the Nantes University Hospital, they have developed a solution that can be applied to the face. It must then be activated with light to allow an action on the acne.
Indeed, the molecules contained in the algae are photo-activatable. In the presence of light, they release energy which makes it possible to create other molecules. It is these new molecules that eliminate the bacteria responsible for acne, according to Jean-Baptiste Berard, engineer in marine biology at Ifremer and one of the inventors of the patent. This exposure to light – natural or artificial – should last only a few seconds. These researchers have even imagined that this step could be done thanks to the flashlight option of the mobile phone, one of the objects that teenagers often have at hand! Without this phase of exposure to light, the microalgae still has a small effect on acne, but less marked because in this case it only acts on the secretion of sebum.
If, for the moment, all this happens in test tubes in the laboratory, the authors of the patent are currently seeking financial partners to proceed to clinical trials. If successful, this algae pimple cream could be on the market within two or three years, they say. The advantage is that we are already cultivating Skeletonema marinoi : the transition to an industrial scale could therefore be done quite easily. What to give some hope to 75% of adolescents and 7% of adults affected by this annoyance that is acne.