A study conducted by NeOnc Technologies Holdings and published in the Wiley Online Research Library examined the effects of NeOnc’s NEO400 formulation for treating skin damage caused by prolonged ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure in mice. Excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) causes harmful effects on human skin. Pre-exposure application of sunscreen can be protective, but not after damage already has occurred. There is a need for agents that can be applied post-UVR exposure to repair the damage.

In the study, UVR was repeatedly administered to the skin of mice over several weeks, where it caused the typical signs of UV damage, including scaling of the skin, DNA damage, and elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines. NEO400, a conjugation of linoleic acid to perillyl alcohol. was applied to half the test animals immediately post-UVR to study its effect on the damage. The other half were tested with Aloe Vera, a commonly used UV skin protector and burn ointment.

The study showed that NEO400 triggered the appearance of markers for dermal stem cell proliferation, and no signs of skin damage emerged. Furthermore, when NEO400 was applied to skin that already had incurred significant damage, it accelerated skin healing. NEO400 resulted in skin protection, and this effect was statistically highly significant p < 0.001. Together, these results indicated a protective effect of NEO400 that could not be mimicked by sunscreen, Aloe vera, or by the individual constituents of NEO400, linoleic acid to perillyl alcohol on its own.

Read The Paper

Therapeutic effect of NEO400, perillyl alcohol conjugated to linoleic acid, in a mouse model of UV- induced skin damage.

Authors: Stephen Swenson¹, Catalina Silva- Hirschberg², Liliana Freeland¹, Kristen L. Chen³, Nagore I. Marín- Ramos¹, Axel H. Schönthal, PhD², and Thomas C. Chen^1,4,5,6,

¹Department of Neurosurgery, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
²Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
³Department of Dermatology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
⁴Department of Pathology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
⁵USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
⁶NeOnc Technologies, Inc., Los