Exosome Innovation and Preventative Skincare ft. AnteAGE

0:02Hey guys, welcome back to Skin Anarchy. Today's episode is going to dive really deep into the world of exosomes. We're interviewing a brand today that I think is doing exosomes in the right way. And I know there's a lot of hype right now in the skincare space about this specific technology and wanting to learn more about it and understanding what do exosomes actually do when it comes to skincare. What are the results we can expect? All of those kind of questions are coming up from you guys for us. So I'm very excited to have this opportunity to host a brand that's leading the way here, you know, in this space.

0:34So without further ado, I'd love to introduce you guys to Blenna LaRue. She is an award-winning aesthetic sales and education leader, and she's here representing Anti-Age MD. Welcome, Blenna. I'm so excited to interview you. Hi, thank you. So happy to be here. I'm excited to chat and dive in. You know, I would love to learn more about Anti-Age, but I want to actually talk about your background because it's truly impressive. I mean, you've worked across so many different fields, you know, dermatology, aesthetics, even the surgery side. So if you could kind of tell us about your background and your career, just so we have an understanding of where you're coming from.

1:08Yes, I was very fortunate. I've been in the aesthetic industry for over 19 years now. I started working first in plastic and reconstructive surgery. And once I felt like I had kind of reached where I had hit the limit, I wanted to be able to not only share what I knew with my patients, but also continue to expand my knowledge and be able to share it with other practices around the United States. So that naturally led me into aesthetic sales. I've been very fortunate to work for some of the top aesthetic companies like SkinCeuticals, MERS Neocutis, Zio Skin Health. And now I'm beyond really honored to work with Antioge and lead our global education team.

1:45That's pretty cool. You work with a lot of great brands. I love those brands. Oh, yes. But when I first started in aesthetics, the thing that I always think is kind of funny is it really was when the injectable era had just begun. And like so far as remembering like being blending in lidocaine with different injectables because they didn't exist yet. So I've been in this industry for quite some time. patients were so discreet back then that you literally had an exit out of the back building because people didn't want to run into anybody after they'd had something done. Well, now we're in this beautiful place where we fast forward into where people are proudly tagging their injectors and estheticians.

2:27And it's not just a new ballgame. It's like a completely new sport. And I absolutely love it because that cultural shift, in my opinion, towards transparency has absolutely fueled innovation. And even as the technology advanced, I kept noticing some of those clinical gaps, where we were just kind of treating the symptoms of aging and volume loss, laxity, those fine lines without actually supporting the skin's underlying biology. So, you know, we could burn it off, we could fill it. And I think we've all kind of seen the ramifications of that with the pillow face people from the 90s and early 2000s.

3:02But now we really are moving into a softer, more natural looking era. And I think that's really what's beautiful about regeneration. I was always a huge supporter of Sculptra when my patients would come in. And it's because it really stimulated collagen production and offered that regenerative benefit. So when I came essentially aware of the different science behind the advanced stem cell growth factors and exosomes, everything just kind of clicked for me. It was like a natural evolution of my career. I moved from, you know, just simply managing the appearances of aging to actually influencing the way that tissue behaved in a cellular level.

3:39Yeah, that's really fascinating, though, because you're bringing forward something I'm very passionate about, which is regenerative medicine. You know, I think that we've definitely seen the realm of like, obviously, in the aesthetic space, it's different. But even in the skincare space, we've seen this huge influence lately, as you know, with regards to regenerative medicine. And it really makes you wonder, you know, how much can we really bring over, right, without having these invasive techniques or, you know, these procedures. And so I'm curious if you could kind of define this for us, because, you know, the term is being used everywhere right now.

4:10But in your view, what truly is regenerative skincare versus just like reparative or anti-aging? Such a good question, because I completely agree with you. The term regenerative is definitely having a moment. It's kind of like a, you know, a decade ago, it was everything was authentic. Now everything's regenerative. But it really is everywhere now. And I think it's important, as you say, that we really clearly define, especially in the context of aesthetics and skincare. To me, regenerative skincare product is one that supports the skin's natural processes. It's helping to optimize the way the skin functions, maintains its balance, and appears more youthful and resilient over time.

4:50It's very different, in my opinion, from reparative, which often, in my mind, what I used to work with in different companies, a lot of it had to do with soothing the skin, comforting the skin, especially if it was in a stressed state, maybe even helping with anti-aging with different things that could have some temporary tightening. But in regenerative aesthetics, we focus on encouraging the skin to function more like it did when it was its healthiest, most vibrant. So that's where biosignals like growth factors and exosomes really come into play. And these aren't just trendy ingredients, although there is a buzz around them.

5:25They're our body's natural messengers. Our skin naturally recognizes them, and they help to promote that balanced, refreshed look to the skin. And that's really why I was drawn to Antioge. The brand is built on real science, not just buzzwords. Our topical formulations feature growth factors and cytokines derived from bone marrow. We're currently the only company that focuses on that. And what we found is it really helps the skin to look and feel more revitalized. And then when you pair that with the other evidence-based ingredients, it complements the skin's natural renewal process. Yeah, that's really fascinating, actually, because we hear a lot about, you know, there's different sources for exosomes, right?

6:03And there's different people use a lot of plant-based exosomes. I mean, I'm just curious what your opinion around that is. Do you think that we should be doing that? Or do you think there's efficacy there? Or is it really important to stick to this more like, you know, human model? I love that you brought that up. So I'm very Southern, if you can't tell from my voice, but I always use the saying that I never call anybody's baby ugly. There are benefits to other stem cell choices that are out there. With plant stem cells, though, the way I explain it is it doesn't have the same level of cell to cell communication that a human derived exosome or say a recombinant human derived exosome will.

6:43If you've ever tried to speak to someone who spoke a different language than you, you may be able to work it out over time, but it doesn't have the quick level of communication to be as beneficial as it could be. That's where I really do believe that human-derived exosome or where we've created our biozone technology with recombinant exosomes is really the next generation of what we should look forward to. Yeah, it's very interesting to me as well. For the exact reasons you described, I mean, I always wonder about the biocompatibility when we're coming from plants over to human tissue. It's always a big question mark.

7:15So thank you for explaining that. And I'm curious, what are biosomes? What exactly are those? So biosomes were created by Celeste, our mother company. So they are proprietary to Antioge. And we consider them truly a first of its kind. There are a lot of different delivery technologies that are out there, liposomes, oleosomes. But what's unique about biosomes is they are designed to mimic the exosome function. So when we looked at our exosomes, just full transparent, we're a global company. And in some areas, they don't allow a human-based exosome. And we didn't want to shortcut our accounts that are in those global markets.

7:53And I'm so grateful to work for Dr. Chi Zhang and Dr. Rob Knight. They're such brilliant scientists. They were able to really take what they had learned from decades of recombinant growth factor technology and advanced lipid chemistry and create these really unique biomimetic exosomes. So they looked at what the key functional proteins, lipids, and those additional features that weighed exosomes so great at what they did. But what they found and what we all know is exosomes contain many components that aren't actually functional for aesthetics. They weren't secreted from cells with the main purpose of aesthetics, right?

8:28They had a function for what they were doing in the body. With biosomes, we really aim to remove that non-functional component and produce nanoparticles that contain only those beneficial functional growth factors. And we came up with a combination of growth factors that really replicate the function of our stem cell derived exosomes. So in my opinion, other delivery systems truly are amazing. There are some really great ones out there, but biosomes are biomimetic exosomes. They don't just deliver, they really speak the skin's language. It makes sense. So what is the value of encapsulating exosomes?

9:02I think for our listeners, it would be great to dive into that and like the purpose of encapsulation. Absolutely. So when we talk about encapsulating those biomimetic exosomes, we're allowing for better stability. So that could be everything from just better stability so that when it's combined into a skincare emulsion with a multitude of different ingredients, that it's able to maintain its integrity. It's also very good when we're talking about things like transportation. It has to get from our lab to your location and being able to make sure that it maintains its integrity. human based exosomes, they're naturally very delicate ladies.

9:38So with them, they can break down very easily if they're not in the right temperature, if they don't have the right stability. And by creating that really unique lipid shell that we create with our biosomes, we're able to really stand up against those those issues and elements. Yeah, it makes sense. Actually, I've always, you know, I think one of the biggest things with exosomes was, for me, when I first heard about them was the idea of like, these are going to go anywhere, you know, there's not a, without having some, something to anchor them, right. Or like to target them to specific tissues.

10:10That's very difficult because they can go into the CNS and they're nano. So for everyone listening, you know, nano sized, anything can go as deep as it is allowed to go in the human body into very, very deep tissues. So I think it's very important to learn about how these technologies are actually being used in a way that they're not going to cause that kind of damage, you know, so I think encapsulation is very important in that way. right so I'm very curious about how you know you guys are using the exosomes when it comes to skincare because this is a conversation I've seen a lot on social media right now it's like people are wondering you know the exosome should be stored at like negative 80 right and they're they're frozen so when you bring them out of that you know there's a lot of talk around they get damaged the membranes get damaged the viability is not intact so can you talk to us a little bit about this process that those exosomes are going through before they're being packaged into, you know, skincare products?

11:06Sure. So one of the things that we do that's a little bit unique compared to some of the other brands, which, you know, it's just the way that it is, is we use lyophilization. So lyophilization with our exosomes, with our biozomes allows it to have, of course, that maintained ability with our presentation inside the skincare products. Now, our lab team, because they created that shell, again, going back to being able to protect the shell, we're able to create it in a way that it maintains that stability within the temperature for two-year shelf life. So the formulation of it in the solution is going to be very different compared to the way that it was created for our skincare model.

11:48That's something that is very difficult to do. When we're talking about our skincare, of course, it's very, as I mentioned, difficult to put a human-based exosome into a product and it maintain that stability. So because we were able to create it, we're able to maintain that stability as opposed to a human-derived exosome that has the potential of breaking down with temperature, with interaction with other ingredients. Interesting. So how do you quantify the number of viable exosomes in your formulations from dairy to finished product? Oh, yes. Such a great question. We get asked this a lot. So with lyophilization, as you know, that's a freeze drying process.

12:27We essentially water is removed from each vial by freezing it, lowering that surrounding air pressure, and then allowing that frozen water to sublimate or turn from a solid to a gas. Now, most people, when they think about this, of course, the concept of it has kind of had some back and forth lately with it can damage exosomes. And it can if it's not done properly. The process can damage some biological materials. So we underwent a period of extensive process of development to optimize those parameters and include the cryoprotectant trailase. So there's some really great published studies. One was from the International Journal of Pharmaceuticals in 2018 about the preservation of exosomes with trailase, specifically because of needing that ability to transport.

13:14Now, knowing that, you know, we really wanted to be able to prove that we have intact exosomes that maintain their stability, to maintain their integrity. You know, we began our research and development in exosomes in 2016. You know, most people didn't start hearing the buzz about exosomes until around 2020, 2021. But we've known as far back as 2011 that we had exosomes in our cell cultures. but we also knew we had to have the right lab team in place and the right technology to create those intact exosomes. Now, we launched our first exosome in 2023, so where there's a lot of companies that are kind of jumping on the trend, we spent over seven years developing it and getting it right.

13:54We do a ton of testing on the final product to ensure that that exosome integrity is functioning and we're really delivering something that is stable. Each batch first undergoes nanoparticle tracking analysis. This basically tells us how many particles are present, but it doesn't tell us if those particles are exosomes. So nanocyte is an example of this, and many of our competitors really end things here. They don't do any additional testing, but at this point, you only really know that you have small things. You don't know what the small things are. So the next step that we do is we do nanoflow cytometry.

14:29This gives us more information on what exactly those small particles are and what percentage of those are exosomes. We stain our sample with a dye that binds to lipids. We kind of talked about exosomes and biosomes have that telltale lipid bilayer, and we can stain for it and measure it. So once we know how many total particles we have and how many of them have that lipid bilayer, we then image those particles using super resolution microscopy. This allows us to really confirm membrane integrity, so we know that lyophilization hasn't damaged the particles. but it also lets us stain and count the number of tetraspanins present in each individual exosome.

15:08So doing this on every batch means we're able to quickly identify any differences between the exosome batches and ensure we have a quality and consistent production with little batch-to-batch variation. So once we've characterized the exosomes, we know we have exosomes in the product. Each batch goes through that in vitro testing. So we just continue to check boxes all the way down. We treat the human skin cells with exosomes and measure how they alter the expressions of specific genes in those cells. We look at changes in the extracellular matrix, so things like collagen elastin, as well as that anti-inflammatory response in the exosomes.

15:46So we do all of this, and we do all of this because we invested in research and development. In our lab, we have a 35 ,000 square foot research and development lab in Irvine, California. Everything that we produce is produced by our lab team and is done in-house. So we're able to have complete control of our finished product. All these little checks and balances are possible for companies who, for instance, don't own their own lab, have someone else creating their own product, or they don't have the tools that we've invested in. Yeah, no, this is really fascinating for me that you have this capacity to do it in-house because that, you know, some of these questions, like for a lot of the listeners out there, you guys, this might sound very technical, but it's really very key questions that you should be asking and wondering about when it comes to exosome-based skincare in general, you know, because if you're buying something and there hasn't been all of this testing done to ensure that the final product that's in your hand, like as a product, doesn't have this kind of testing behind it where you know the amount of particles in there, you know exactly that they're viable, they're still intact, then you're not going to see any kind of results.

16:54So I'm just clarifying for our listeners why we're diving so deep because I think this is the next generation of the conversation that needs to take place. I think around any kind of nanotechnology and especially when you're bringing it over to the skincare or OTC space for people to actually consume and utilize on a day-to-day basis. I think they need to be able to understand this stuff. So that's very cool that you guys have all of this done and you're doing your homework so thoroughly and it's within house. That's huge. Yeah. So I want to talk about, there's some concerns in medical literature, right?

17:26And I kind of touched on this earlier when it comes to, you know, crossing the blood brain barrier. This is a big problem, you know, that we're seeing with nanotechnology in general. How do you address those claims? and how does encapsulation actually work when it comes to mitigating that kind of risk? Yeah, so, you know, we sell a topical exosome product. So when applied topically with exosomes, we typically are not going to see a systemic circulation. But with the encapsulation that we have, it gives it a very specific engineering so that the focus remains in those skin cells. So there's a lot of really interesting technology that's starting to emerge about being able to utilize exosomes really in the medical space for delivery for things like Alzheimer's and cancer and things of this nature.

18:13But we definitely stick in our arena with topical aesthetics and focused on that epidermis and dermis. So what is the load of the amount of these of the exosomes in the product? Like how much are you delivering per use? Yeah, so with each of our solutions, you're getting 10 billion exosomes. With the biozomes, you're getting 25 billion of those biozomes. So they're meant to be alternatives to each other, not necessarily competitors to each other. So it's really a matter, in my opinion, when selecting whichever product you prefer, a lot of it has to do with the practitioner's preference, or it has to do with that patient's preference.

18:54So if you have someone, let's say, for instance, is wanting something that is more refined, that only contains, you know, kind of tried and true known recombinant growth factors, I would recommend, especially from a non-human source, to utilize our biozones. If there's someone who is, you know, that's really not a concern for them, then our traditional exosomes would be the way to go. Interesting. I would love for you to speak on the sourcing of the stem cell-derived biosignals. I mean, how does donor selection, lab conditions, purification, all of that, how does it affect the safety and potency of the final products?

19:30Oh my gosh, it is incredibly important. Safety is one of the biggest things for me and especially for our lab team. At the end of the day, we are wanting to improve people's lives and we're wanting to make sure that we deliver the safest, most potent product possible. So all of our donations came from an FDA-cleared third-party proprietary biolab. That is what they do. So they collect donations for different hospital groups as well as clinical trials. That is their arena. So they have to adhere to all FDA-recommended guidelines for tissue donation. They go through an extensive healthcare questionnaire with the donors.

20:06They test them for 20 different viral and bacterial markers, and this is all before they're ever admitted into the donor program. We select females between the ages of 18 and 24, healthy, athletic. And with those parameters set, we select the best of the best out of that. So those that have the highest cytokine profile. Health and age of the donor is incredibly important. When we think of aging, we know around the mid-20s to late-20s, that's when we start to see that drop-off of collagen. The 30s, we start to see that drop-off, pretty significant drop-off in elastin. So by selecting those healthy athletic women in their prime, we're able really to provide a nice, robust product.

20:48But most importantly, we have GMP cells or good manufacturing practice cells. We have to maintain the strictest conditions set forth by regulatory agencies. And we've created a master and working cell bank. So we have access to the same cells for at least the next seven years. And very few companies actually own their own cell bank. Our lab is also GMP and ISO certified. It essentially means we adhere to those highest manufacturing standards, not only on a national level here in the U.S., but also on an international level. So we're registered with the FDA under the new MOCRA guidelines for cosmetic indications.

21:24So every product we have and our lab is registered with the FDA for topical cosmetic and complete compliance with MOCRA. wow that's that's really great to hear that because there's a lot of fuzziness i think out here right now with the biotechnology we're seeing you know in skincare it's something i worry about because i feel like we're shifting from like that clean skincare trend to now we want this very tech heavy kind of innovation in our skincare products but then you know that's exactly it like we don't know a lot of the the regulatory stuff that goes around this right like there's not a lot of transparency there but i think that that's where you guys really shine for me you you know, as a brand is that you're very clear about what you're doing and how this works.

22:06And I think for consumers, it's very important for us to be able to see kind of that back door kind of view, right, of like, what are brands doing? How does all of this work? How do you really bring over something like true regenerative medicine into this scope, and then be able to verify that it's actually going to work. So with that in mind, I want to actually ask you a little bit about any trials that you guys have done or any of the data that you've collected with regards to the results that we can expect from the products, anything that you can speak to? Yes. So we actually have a multitude of clinical studies and white papers that really go into not only the characterization and description of what those exosomes are, as far as the entire policy from start to finish, how they're created, same with our biosomes and our growth factor solutions.

22:51But we also have a white paper that's specifically on our safety and manufacturing. Dr. Rob Knight, our lead scientist, he actually has his PhD in small extracellular vesicles as anti-scarring therapeutics or what we know as exosomes. We're currently the only aesthetic company that I know of that has someone who has their field of study literally leading that team for aesthetics in exosome arena. His goal is to really set the standard for exosomes, the way that they're manufactured and the way that we bring a product to market. So it's very important to us that we are very transparent and give our science to our practitioners, as well as anyone who's interested in learning about it so that they know how much time, care and safety we put into place.

23:36Yeah, that's fascinating. I mean, I think for me, I'm very, very curious about what this generation of like skin health products means for consumers. You know, I know a lot of times when we talk about skincare, it's very anti-aging, right? Like that's the focus everybody seems to have is like wrinkles, elasticity, you know, firmness of the skin. But I think when I look at something like this, it's also from this preventative lens as well, where this could become our preventative everyday routine that we're utilizing, say, in our late 20s, right, going forward. And then, you know, what do you feel about that in terms of like how we should be positioning of these kind of options in the skincare space when consumers are looking for for like maintenance kind of skincare?

24:22I so appreciate that you said that I the plastic surgeon that I work for, Dr. Alexander DeGenis in Louisville, Kentucky, he was brilliant because his goal was always prevention before correction. And it was in a time when that wasn't something that was really talked about. So when we're talking about prevention, just getting people started on the basics and really being able to protect their skin from that environmental assault, from different types of antioxidants, as well as strengthening that skin barrier, all the way up to really helping to restore the skin into proper function if they do have dysfunctional skin.

24:57Where we're seeing a lot of breakdown, of course, are things like we're talking about inflammation, chronic inflammation that causes premature signs of aging. And also just in general, not being able to provide people with products that have ingredients that aren't working against them. And I would do any type of skin consult. A lot of the problems that I was seeing were because people weren't selecting products that were correct for their skin. And what I love about anti-age is we really truly have created a line that can be used on any skin type. It really is a very targeted and complete line that's very simplistic in its approach.

25:34I love that. I think we need more of that, you know, because everything is so focused on like, well, you know, we're going to just get rid of every wrinkle on your face, you know, and we're just going to, it's like very, like, it becomes too much in the skincare space sometimes because everybody's so hyper-focused on this whole idea of like, no, you know, we want to completely eradicate all pores and let's get rid of every sign of wear and tear i think the idea of regenerative medicine for me is that you are promoting health more than anything right it's like if you're looking at the skin overall and this is for everyone listening if you guys are looking at your skin your goal should be what can i do that's going to every day maintain its integrity so that it can fight off what it's supposed to fight off like that's the skin's purpose is an organ so when we look at skincare products, I get very baffled when I see everybody using crazy, you know, exfoliation ingredients and everyone's got like 15 AHAs and, you know, their products and whatever.