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The Development of Peptides and Peptide-Modified Delivery Systems

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2024 | Viewed by 1449

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
The School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan, China
Interests: cell penetrating peptide; targeting peptide; drug delivery system; cancer; angiogenesis disease
1. Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
Interests: stem cell biology; molecular, cellular and tissue engineering; biomaterials; regenerative medicine; neovascularization congenital anomalies; developmental biology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
The School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan, China
Interests: chemical modification of peptides and protein; polysaccharide; structural analysis; activity evaluation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Peptides widely exist in biological organisms, participate in and regulate the functional activities of various systems, organs, tissues, and cells in the body, and play an important role in life. Peptides have been used as drugs for nearly a century. So far, hundreds of peptide-based drugs, including peptides and their modifiers, have been approved worldwide for a range of applications in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, immune regulation and other diseases. In addition, peptides also play a supporting role in drug delivery.

In recent years, the production of peptides has shown a positive trend. With the development of technology and equipment, the cost of peptide synthesis has been greatly reduced. Based on this, the combination of traditional synthesis methods and new technologies provides new opportunities for the production of more complex functional peptides and their analogs, as well as new options for the structural modification of peptides. Moreover, due to their good biocompatibility, peptides as drug carriers have attracted widespread attention. Peptides can be used as either modifiers or main components of drug carriers.

In connection with the above, this Special Issue invites the latest contributions in this broad and highly promising field. We welcome various types of submissions, including research articles, communications, and reviews, that focus on new approaches, methodologies, and perspectives toward the development of peptide-based drugs, materials and drug delivery systems for biomedical applications.

Dr. Xinke Zhang
Dr. Aijun Wang
Prof. Dr. Fengshan Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • peptides
  • drug delivery
  • peptide modification
  • targeting
  • nano
  • peptide-based materials
  • peptide therapeutics

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2432 KiB  
Article
New Transferrin Receptor-Targeted Peptide–Doxorubicin Conjugates: Synthesis and In Vitro Antitumor Activity
by Jiale Yu, Xiaoxia Mao, Xue Yang, Guiqin Zhao and Songtao Li
Molecules 2024, 29(8), 1758; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29081758 - 12 Apr 2024
Viewed by 374
Abstract
Poor selectivity to tumor cells is a major drawback in the clinical application of the antitumor drug doxorubicin (DOX). Peptide–drug conjugates (PDCs) constructed by modifying antitumor drugs with peptide ligands that have high affinity to certain overexpressed receptors in tumor cells are increasingly [...] Read more.
Poor selectivity to tumor cells is a major drawback in the clinical application of the antitumor drug doxorubicin (DOX). Peptide–drug conjugates (PDCs) constructed by modifying antitumor drugs with peptide ligands that have high affinity to certain overexpressed receptors in tumor cells are increasingly assessed for their possibility of tumor-selective drug delivery. However, peptide ligands composed of natural L-configuration amino acids have the defects of easy enzymatic degradation and insufficient biological stability. In this study, two new PDCs (LT7-SS-DOX and DT7-SS-DOX) were designed and synthesized by conjugating a transferrin receptor (TfR) peptide ligand LT7 (HAIYPRH) and its retro-inverso analog DT7 (hrpyiah), respectively, with DOX via a disulfide bond linker. Both conjugates exhibited targeted antiproliferative effects on TfR overexpressed tumor cells and little toxicity to TfR low-expressed normal cells compared with free DOX. Moreover, the DT7-SS-DOX conjugate possessed higher serum stability, more sustained reduction-triggered drug release characteristics, and stronger in vitro antiproliferative activity as compared to LT7-SS-DOX. In conclusion, the coupling of antitumor drugs with the DT7 peptide ligand can be used as a promising strategy for the further development of stable and efficient PDCs with the potential to facilitate TfR-targeted drug delivery. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Development of Peptides and Peptide-Modified Delivery Systems)
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17 pages, 2557 KiB  
Article
Second-Generation Polyamidoamine Dendrimer Conjugated with Oligopeptides Can Enhance Plasmid DNA Delivery In Vitro
by Seongyeon Kim, Le Thi Thuy, Jeil Lee and Joon Sig Choi
Molecules 2023, 28(22), 7644; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28227644 - 17 Nov 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 760
Abstract
Poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers have attracted considerable attention in the field of gene therapy due to their flexibility in introducing different functional moieties and reduced toxicity at low generations. However, their transfection efficiency remains a limitation. Therefore, an essential approach for improving their transfection [...] Read more.
Poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers have attracted considerable attention in the field of gene therapy due to their flexibility in introducing different functional moieties and reduced toxicity at low generations. However, their transfection efficiency remains a limitation. Therefore, an essential approach for improving their transfection efficiency as gene carriers involves modifying the structure of PAMAM by conjugating functional groups around their surface. In this study, we successfully conjugated an RRHRH oligopeptide to the surface of PAMAM generation 2 (PAMAM G2) to create RRHRH-PAMAM G2. This construction aims to condense plasmid DNA (pDNA) and facilitate its penetration into cell membranes, leading to its promising potential for gene therapy. RRHRH-PAMAM G2/pDNA complexes were smaller than 100 nm and positively charged. Nano-polyplexes can enter the cell and show a high transfection efficiency after 24 h of transfection. The RRHRH-PAMAM G2 was non-toxic to HeLa, NIH3T3, A549, and MDA-MB-231 cell lines. These results strongly suggest that RRHRH-PAMAM G2 holds promise as a gene carrier for gene therapy owing to its biocompatibility and ability to deliver genes to the cell. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Development of Peptides and Peptide-Modified Delivery Systems)
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