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[Kim Saemi, Edaily Reporter] In the global beauty market, the term “peptide” is no longer unfamiliar. Beyond simple moisturizing or antioxidant effects, growth factor peptides are gaining renewed attention as a core technology that restores the skin‘s own biological functions. As the convergence of dermatology and regenerative medicine accelerates, high-performance anti-aging skincare increasingly focuses on potent bioactive ingredients like growth factors-EGF, FGF, TGF, VEGF, and PDGF.

These growth factors are biologically active proteins naturally produced by the human body, playing key roles in cell signaling, tissue regeneration, proliferation, and migration. When applied to the skin, they act as powerful activators that restore deteriorated skin functions due to aging and promote fundamental skin rejuvenation, including wrinkle reduction, elasticity improvement, whitening, and regeneration.

However, despite their promising efficacy, peptides and proteins face two major limitations: the skin barrier and biological instability. Due to their large molecular size and hydrophilic nature, these molecules struggle to penetrate the lipid bilayer of the cell membrane. Even when absorbed, they are rapidly degraded by the body’s ubiquitin-proteasome pathway (UPP), resulting in a short half-life and limited lasting effect.

HUGRO image (Source: BioPlus)

To overcome these challenges, BioPlus Inc. has developed two proprietary platform technologies, leading to the creation of its breakthrough peptide complex, HUGRO.

The first innovation is AUT (Anti-Ubiquitination Technology). By substituting lysine residues-key ubiquitination sites-with arginine, AUT effectively prevents ubiquitin tagging and subsequent protein degradation. This significantly prolongs the half-life and biological stability of active proteins within the body.

The second is BMTS (Biological Materials Transdermal System), a cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) technology. Using a specific hydrophobic amino acid sequence, BMTS enables direct delivery of bioactive compounds through the skin barrier into cells. More than just a carrier, BMTS functions as a highly specialized transdermal delivery system, ensuring deep skin penetration and targeted cellular uptake.

Image illustrating AUT and BMTS technologies (Source: BioPlus)

By applying both AUT and BMTS to growth factor peptides, BioPlus has engineered HUGRO Peptide, a next-generation bio-solution. Going beyond conventional extraction and encapsulation, the company employs recombinant genetic engineering to directly deliver the essence of beauty to the skin at the cellular level. With HUGRO, BioPlus is rewriting the paradigm of anti-aging skincare.