The story

The idea came out of Spain. A group at the Universidad Miguel Hernandez in Alicante, working with the peptide house Lipotec, asked whether the docking machinery a toxin attacks from inside a nerve could be interfered with by a short peptide applied from outside. In 2002 they published the hexapeptide Ac-EEMQRR-NH2, called Argireline, with wrinkle depth down by up to 30 percent on volunteers after a month. SNAP-8 followed as the eight residue version, patented into cosmetic anti-ageing compositions and sold as a ready solution, now under Lubrizol. The family then travelled: Chinese dermatologists measured the hexapeptide against placebo on peri-orbital lines, and Korean groups built it into dissolving microneedle patches to carry it deeper than a cream can.