Strategies for Improving Peptide Stability and Delivery
A special issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247). This special issue belongs to the section "Biopharmaceuticals".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 March 2024) | Viewed by 1195
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
As our understanding of molecular mechanisms that lead to disease has grown in recent decades, so has the modality landscape to treat those diseases. Peptides, specifically, have unique characteristics that provide versatility for combating diseases in a variety of therapeutic areas. Although generally proteogenic, peptides are less likely to elicit an immune response due to their small size and are able to bind to protein–protein interaction interfaces, whereas small molecules are (for the most part) better suited to orthosteric binding. Additionally, recent advances in mRNA display and combinatorial library methods have enabled rapid hit generation from high-throughput screening. Once hits are generated, peptides must be optimized for their stability and delivery to ensure target binding, which is a difficult task for these relatively large molecules that are constantly exposed to hundreds of endogenous hydrolytic enzymes.
Despite these challenges, over the past several decades, 36 peptides have received FDA approval for diverse indications, including, but not limited to, diabetes, irritable bowel disease, various types of cancer, endocrine disorders, viral infection, and obesity [1]. Although there are success stories, peptide drug discovery and development have many challenges that are unique to the modality and not frequently encountered with typical small molecule targeted programs, not the least of which are optimizing stability and delivery to make sure the compound reaches its target. Stability and delivery are staples of any modality; however, peptides and other Beyond Rule of 5 (BRo5) modalities are especially subject to roadblocks at these crucial steps. For this reason, basic research and mechanistic insight into the intricacies of these phenomena are pivotal to advancing drug development in this versatile modality. To this end, authors are invited to submit original research articles that investigate overall peptide stability and delivery (intracellular or otherwise) at any and all stages of discovery, development, or elsewhere.
1. Wang, L. et al., Therapeutic peptides: current applications and future directions. Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, 2022. 7(1): p. 48.
Dr. Joe Cannon
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- peptides
- permeability
- cell-penetrating peptide
- mRNA display
- proteolysis
- peptide metabolism
