Application of Peptides in Pharmaceutical Industry

SHIRLEY, N.Y. - Dec. 28, 2021 - PRLog -- Peptides, the highly adjustable molecules, are receiving increasing attention in pharmaceutical industry for their maximum possibilities of being customized to achieve ideal biocompatibility and biodegradability, as well as selective and effective therapeutic effects.

1 Antiviral peptides
Virus infection generally undergoes multiple stages such as adsorption (to host cell), penetration, uncoating, nucleic acid replication, transcription and translation, and packaging. The screening of antiviral drugs largely focuses on the two stages of virus adsorption and nucleic acid replication. Viruses bind to specific receptors on host cells for adsorption and rely on their own specific proteases for protein processing and nucleic acid replication.

2 Anti-tumor peptides
Multiple factors may result in the occurrence of tumors, but ultimately all involve the regulation of oncogene expression. Different tumors are caused by disparate enzymes or regulatory factors. Therefore, selecting specific small peptides as regulatory factors required for tumorigenesis and blocking the active site can contribute to the prevention of tumorigenesis.

3 Cytokine mimic peptides
The use of known cytokine receptors to screen cytokine mimic peptides from peptide libraries has drawn considerable attention in recent years. Human erythropoietin, human thrombopoietin, human growth hormone, human nerve growth factor, and interleukin-1 have been screened to mimic peptides of multiple growth factors. The amino acid sequence of these mimetic peptides is different from that of the corresponding cytokine.

4 Antimicrobial peptides
When insects are stimulated by the external environment, they will produce a large number of cationic polypeptides with antibacterial activity. More than one hundred kinds of antimicrobial peptides (https://www.creative-peptides.com/product/antimicrobial-p...) have been screened out. In vivo and in vitro experiments have confirmed that multiple antimicrobial peptides not only have the strong bactericidal ability but also can kill tumor cells.

5 Diagnostic peptides
Polypeptides are used as antigens in diagnostic reagents to detect antibodies against viruses, cells, mycoplasma, spirochetes, other microorganisms, and parasites such as cysticercosis and trypanosoma. Polypeptide antigens are more specific than natural microorganisms or parasite protein antigens and are easily prepared.

6 Peptides for cardiovascular disease
Many plant-derived drugs have the effects of lowering blood pressure and blood lipids, as well as dissolving thrombosis. They can be used not only as medicines but also as health foods. A lot of active ingredients are found in small molecular peptides, such as active peptides processed and isolated from soybeans.

Conclusion
The huge clinical potential of peptide (https://creative-peptides.com/) products is reflected in the fact that there are more than 60 peptide-based therapies on the market and another 500 derivatives currently in the development stage. The versatility and tunability of peptide-based products have led to an increase in the translation of peptide therapy. However, there are still major challenges in its implementation requiring further technological advances.