Improvements in chemical carriers of proteins and peptides

Abstract

The successful intracellular delivery of biologically active proteins and peptides plays an important role for therapeutic applications. Indeed, protein/peptide delivery could overcome some problems of gene therapy, for example, controlling the expression levels and the integration of transgene into the host cell genome. Thus, protein/peptide drug delivery showed a promising and safe approach for treatment of cancer and infectious diseases. Due to the unique physical and chemical properties of proteins, their production (e.g., isolation, purification & formulation) and delivery represented significant challenges in pharmaceutical studies. Modification in the structural moieties of these protein/peptide drugs could improve their solubility, stability, crystallinity, lipophilicity, enzymatic susceptibility and targetability, and subsequently, therapies and cures against various diseases. Using the structural modification of protein/peptide, their delivery provided overall higher success rates including high specificity, high activity, bioreactivity and safety. Recently, biotechnological and pharmaceutical companies have tried to find novel techniques for the modifications and improve delivery systems/carriers. However, each carrier has its own benefits and drawbacks, and an appropriate carrier is often established by the physicochemical properties of protein or peptide, the ideal route of injection, and clinical characteristics of therapy. In this review, an attempt was made to give an overview on the chemical carriers for proteins and peptides as well as the recent advances in this field.

Polypeptide Self-Assembled Nanoparticles as Delivery Systems for Polymyxins B and E

“…A particular focus for these drugs has been the development of delivery systems based on nanoparticles (NPs) of poly(lactide- co -glycolide) [ 15 , 16 ] and chitosan [ 17 ], as well as different poly(methacrylic acid) microgels [ 18 ]. Summaries of different delivery systems available for antibacterial peptide drugs have been presented in some recent reviews [ 19 , 20 , 21 ].…”

Antioxidant stress and anticancer activity of peptide‑chelated selenium in vitro

“…A previous study demonstrated that ACBP combined with oxaliplatin significantly inhibits proliferation of MKN-45 cells ( 35 ). Recently, the replacement of peptides with chemical modifications to achieve the same therapeutic effects as their natural peptide counterparts in combined chemotherapeutics has been developed ( 55 ). Furthermore, the incorporation of the Se atom into amino acids and peptides is primarily restricted to selenocysteine derivatives ( 56 ) and there is a need to develop synthesis of amino acid-derived chiral Se compounds for evaluation of antioxidant, antihypertensive, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects ( 56 ).…”

Phage-Displayed Peptides for Targeting Tyrosine Kinase Membrane Receptors in Cancer Therapy

“…Further, peptides ligands can be optimized for targeting by combining the phage display-based selection with the computational modeling of peptide structure. The peptide optimization can be achieved by chemical modifications that increase their affinity, avidity, target specificity, and water solubility [70].…”