pH-dependent antibacterial activity of glycolic acid : implications for anti-acne formulations

Glycolic acid is the smallest alpha hydroxy acid and widely used for skincare applications, including to treat acne vulgaris. Oftentimes, high concentrations of glycolic acid (~20–50 vol%) are incorporated into chemical peels to reduce acne-related inflammation while there is an outstanding need to...

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Main Authors: Valle-González, Elba R., Jackman, Joshua A., Yoon, Bo Kyeong, Mokrzecka, Natalia, Cho, Nam-Joon
Other Authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/146322
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1463222023-07-14T16:00:04Z pH-dependent antibacterial activity of glycolic acid : implications for anti-acne formulations Valle-González, Elba R. Jackman, Joshua A. Yoon, Bo Kyeong Mokrzecka, Natalia Cho, Nam-Joon School of Materials Science and Engineering Engineering::Chemical engineering Antimicrobials Bacteria Glycolic acid is the smallest alpha hydroxy acid and widely used for skincare applications, including to treat acne vulgaris. Oftentimes, high concentrations of glycolic acid (~20–50 vol%) are incorporated into chemical peels to reduce acne-related inflammation while there is an outstanding need to determine to what extent glycolic acid can potently inhibit Cutibacterium acnes (formerly known as Propionibacterium acnes), which is a Gram-positive bacterium implicated in acne pathogenesis. Herein, we report that glycolic acid exhibits pH-dependent antibacterial activity against C. acnes and mechanistic studies identified that the nonionic form of glycolic acid is more active than the anionic form. The degree of antibacterial activity, including minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), of glycolic acid was evaluated in the pH range of 3 to 4.5, and the greatest potency was observed at pH 3. In light of skincare formulation needs, we selected the pH 3.5 condition for further testing and determined that glycolic acid kills C. acnes cells by disrupting bacterial cell membranes. While most conventional treatments involve high concentrations of glycolic acid (>20%), our findings support the potential of developing anti-acne formulations with glycolic acid concentrations as low as 0.2% and with pH conditions that are suitable for over-the-counter applications. Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) National Research Foundation (NRF) Published version This work was supported by a National Research Foundation Proof-of-Concept Grant (NRF2015NRF-POC001-019) and an A*STAR-NTU-NHG Skin Research Grant (SRG/14028), and by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. 2020R1C1C1004385). The authors thank H.S. Yoon for providing laboratory space to conduct antibacterial experiments. 2021-02-09T06:14:53Z 2021-02-09T06:14:53Z 2020 Journal Article Valle-González, E. R., Jackman, J. A., Yoon, B. K., Mokrzecka, N., & Cho, N.-J. (2020). pH-dependent antibacterial activity of glycolic acid : implications for anti-acne formulations. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 7491-. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-64545-9 2045-2322 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/146322 10.1038/s41598-020-64545-9 32367064 2-s2.0-85084200847 1 10 en NRF2015NRF-POC001-019 SRG/14028 Scientific Reports © 2020 The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Engineering::Chemical engineering
Antimicrobials
Bacteria
spellingShingle Engineering::Chemical engineering
Antimicrobials
Bacteria
Valle-González, Elba R.
Jackman, Joshua A.
Yoon, Bo Kyeong
Mokrzecka, Natalia
Cho, Nam-Joon
pH-dependent antibacterial activity of glycolic acid : implications for anti-acne formulations
description Glycolic acid is the smallest alpha hydroxy acid and widely used for skincare applications, including to treat acne vulgaris. Oftentimes, high concentrations of glycolic acid (~20–50 vol%) are incorporated into chemical peels to reduce acne-related inflammation while there is an outstanding need to determine to what extent glycolic acid can potently inhibit Cutibacterium acnes (formerly known as Propionibacterium acnes), which is a Gram-positive bacterium implicated in acne pathogenesis. Herein, we report that glycolic acid exhibits pH-dependent antibacterial activity against C. acnes and mechanistic studies identified that the nonionic form of glycolic acid is more active than the anionic form. The degree of antibacterial activity, including minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), of glycolic acid was evaluated in the pH range of 3 to 4.5, and the greatest potency was observed at pH 3. In light of skincare formulation needs, we selected the pH 3.5 condition for further testing and determined that glycolic acid kills C. acnes cells by disrupting bacterial cell membranes. While most conventional treatments involve high concentrations of glycolic acid (>20%), our findings support the potential of developing anti-acne formulations with glycolic acid concentrations as low as 0.2% and with pH conditions that are suitable for over-the-counter applications.
author2 School of Materials Science and Engineering
author_facet School of Materials Science and Engineering
Valle-González, Elba R.
Jackman, Joshua A.
Yoon, Bo Kyeong
Mokrzecka, Natalia
Cho, Nam-Joon
format Article
author Valle-González, Elba R.
Jackman, Joshua A.
Yoon, Bo Kyeong
Mokrzecka, Natalia
Cho, Nam-Joon
author_sort Valle-González, Elba R.
title pH-dependent antibacterial activity of glycolic acid : implications for anti-acne formulations
title_short pH-dependent antibacterial activity of glycolic acid : implications for anti-acne formulations
title_full pH-dependent antibacterial activity of glycolic acid : implications for anti-acne formulations
title_fullStr pH-dependent antibacterial activity of glycolic acid : implications for anti-acne formulations
title_full_unstemmed pH-dependent antibacterial activity of glycolic acid : implications for anti-acne formulations
title_sort ph-dependent antibacterial activity of glycolic acid : implications for anti-acne formulations
publishDate 2021
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/146322
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