السبت، 9 يوليو 2016

Updates On Peptide Drug Discovery And Advance

By Daniel West


While most preclinical pharmacologists and biotechnology experts may not always agree, peptide therapeutics provides noticeable commercial success. Over 50 peptide drugs, with yearly sales of more than $1 billion each, were sold in 2010. These drugs have ability to slow down metabolic diseases and tumor growth. Scientists are carrying out research to establish whether peptides can function as vaccines, contraceptives, and antimicrobials. The quality of health care services is set to improve with the peptide drug discovery and its development.

Being a naturally occurring molecule, peptide has numerous sources. For example, it is possible to mine it from both unicellular and multicellular organisms. It can be derived from chemical and recombinant libraries. Peptides are chemically more diverse than other categories of biological molecules. The digestive juices tend to degrade this drug at a higher rate. Therefore, they are introduced directly into the bloodstream through injection. They are safer and more reliable than synthetic medications. They target sources of infection directly due to their high selectivity and specificity.

During the process of degradation, peptides form proteinogenic amino acids but do not release toxic metabolites. On the other hand, other synthetic drugs release harmful metabolites that might worsen the health status of the patient. This property has led to increase in popularity of peptides. Their short half-life is advantageous in the sense that their metabolites are not left to circulate within the body for a long duration.

In contrast to antibodies and bigger proteins, peptides have ability to penetrate deep into the tissue at a fast rate. Additionally, their manufacturing cost is significantly lower than recombinant antibodies and proteins. Due to their high stability and activity, these drugs can be put in storage at a room temperature. Most of them are acquired from polypeptides or protein and they can intermingle with membrane proteins. Activation or deactivation of some target receptors is possible when small amount of peptides are utilized. Currently, very few peptides antagonists that promote ligand-receptor reactions are available on the market.

With the health industry investing hugely in research, the popularity of peptide drug may increase tremendously. Those available in the market are peptide hormones or simply derivatives that trigger hormone action. Since 2010, the popularity of peptides has been escalating at a surprising rate. Nevertheless, some of the drugs that were deployed to the market in 2010 were either banned or withdrawn.

Most peptides are undergoing clinical trials. Drugs that are undergoing clinical trials target oncology and highly infectious diseases. The method of administering these medications is intravenously and subcutaneously. Some of these trials have proved to be successful and within a few years, peptides might become mainstream drugs.

The major challenge that is hindering commercialization of peptides is its administration procedure and easy degradation. Researchers are trying to come with solutions that allow administration of peptides in a form that is not easily degraded in the digestive system. The collaboration of stakeholders in the health industry and scientist is likely to bear fruits.

Scientists have resulted to peptide optimization as an approach of making this drug stable. An encapsulated form of this medication was introduced into the digestive system of animals and was found to work. Degradability is significantly lowered by encapsulating the drug with mesoporous silica particles.




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