HYDROXYCINNAMIC ACID DERIVATIVES AS BIFUNCTIONAL ANTIOXIDANTS AND IRON CHELATORS FOR PHOTOPROTECTION

Batool ALBADAINEH1,2,3, Haobo GE1,2,3, Ian BLAGBROUGH1, Io LAOURI1, Samaher BADURES1, Yongmin MA4,5, Agostino CILIBRIZZI2,4, Robert HIDER4, Charareh POURZAND1,2,3

1Life Sciences, University of bath, Bath, United Kingdom
2Centre for Therapeutic Innovation, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom
3Centre for Bioengineering and Biomedical Technologies, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom
4Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
5Institute of Advanced Studies, School of Pharmaceutical and Chemical Engineering, Taizhou University, Taizhou, China

Hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives such as trans-cinnamic acid (TCA), caffeic acid (CA), ferulic acid (FA), rosmarinic acid (RA) and chlorogenic acid (CHLA) are known to exhibit antioxidant activities in vitro and in vivo. Based on their chemical structures, they are also expected to exhibit iron chelating properties.1 These compounds can be ideal skin photo-protectants against UVA component of sunlight, since UVA exerts its dual damaging effect in the skin by both generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) and promoting the release of harmful labile iron (LI), that acts as a catalyst to exacerbate the ROS-mediated damage.2 We first evaluated the intracellular LI levels before and after UVA irradiation of human skin fibroblasts treated (or not) with TCA, CA, FA, RA and CHLA using custom-made fluorescent iron-selective sensors3,4 and then corroborated these with the extent of protection against UVA-induced cell damage with MTT assay. Among all compounds studied, TCA provided the most promising photoprotection against UVA in skin cells that corroborated with its strong ability to decrease both the basal and UVA-induced increase in intracellular LI.This is the first study demonstrating the dual function of hydroxycinnamic derivates notably TCA against UVA damage in skin cells. 

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4. Hider RC, Pourzand C, Ma Y, Cilibrizzi A. (2023) Molecules. 28(18):6467.