SYN-AKE

The concept comes from waglerin-1, a venom peptide that blocks the adult muscle form of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, the receptor that receives the nerve signal telling a muscle fiber to contract. In mouse muscle, waglerin-1 suppressed this nerve-to-muscle signaling. The cosmetic peptide is presented as acting along similar lines, relaxing the small facial muscles behind expression lines, a goal it shares with botulinum toxin, though the toxin acts on the nerve ending rather than the muscle receptor. Published human studies have not measured whether enough of a peptide applied to the skin reaches facial muscle to do this; mechanistic work so far is mainly computer modeling and cell assays.

Research is limited and mostly indirect. Waglerin-1, the venom peptide it is modeled on, selectively blocks the adult muscle nicotinic receptor in mice¹, and an evolutionary study traced waglerin peptides to temple viper venom genes while noting their use in skin creams². Laboratory work on the cosmetic peptide itself is largely computer docking and simulation plus antioxidant and cell assays³, with a 2026 study adding cell and enzyme tests of a nanoemulsion form⁶. The human data in PubMed come from researchers at a cosmetics company who studied a serum combining it with acetyl hexapeptide-8, gluconolactone, niacinamide and kelp extract: in two single-arm studies of 50 and 42 Chinese women, dermatologist scores for static and dynamic wrinkles improved over 8 to 12 weeks and no adverse events were reported⁴. There was no control group and several actives were mixed, so the peptide's own contribution cannot be separated. Clinicians have also described its use alongside botulinum toxin injections in uncontrolled case reports⁵.

It is not approved as a drug by the FDA or any other regulator. It is used as a cosmetic ingredient in topical skin-care products.

No adverse events were reported in the two small clinical studies of the combination serum. In laboratory work, a nanoemulsion form was reported as non-genotoxic and tolerated by cultured cells. There are no published human data on the peptide used on its own and no long-term data. Reports of its use alongside botulinum toxin injections were uncontrolled.

1. McArdle et al., J Pharmacol Exp Ther 1999PubMed
2. Debono et al., J Mol Evol 2017PubMed
3. Gok et al., J Biomol Struct Dyn 2024PubMed
4. Zhu et al., Int J Cosmet Sci 2026PubMed
5. Lupin et al., J Drugs Dermatol 2024PubMed
6. Gok et al., 3 Biotech 2026PubMed