Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Current Trends On Peptide Drug Discovery

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.

After peptides undergo the degradation process, they produce proteinogenic amino acids. Unlike artificial medications that produce toxic metabolites, these drugs are safe. The toxic metabolites cause series side effects and can sometimes cause other complications such as ulcers. The safety nature of peptides might have facilitated its popularity that is being witnessed. Its short half-life property has some health advantages since the human body does not have to deal with metabolites for a long time.

These drugs can access deep tissues faster than bigger antibodies and proteins. Recombinant proteins as well as antibodies tend to have a high production cost than peptides. The performance of these drugs can be maintained at top-notch level even when they are stored at room temperatures. Since they are derived from protein and peptides, they can react with membrane proteins. It is possible to activate and deactivate target receptors using small quantity of peptides. Today, the market has few peptides that can facilitate ligand-receptor interactions.

The number of peptide medications that are being deployed to the health care market is increasing tremendously. These drugs are peptide derivatives and hormones, which fuel hormone action. The number of these medications being introduced to the market has been on an upward trend since 2010. At times, these medications are placed in the market and then withdrawn after a short period.

Currently, scientists are conducting a series of clinical trials to determine the efficacy of peptides. Those under trials are believed to have properties of healing several infectious disease and oncology. They are introduced into the body through intravenous and subcutaneous techniques.

The easy degradation and lack of an appropriate technique for administering peptide drugs serves as a major obstacle for commercialization of these medications. Scientists are trying to modify these drugs and make their degradation a bit tough. Recently, strong collaboration between medical practitioners has been witnessed. This collaboration might end up bearing fruits.

Stabilization of peptides through optimization is a strategy that scientists are currently using. The first clinical trial involved administering the drug, which was encapsulated with silica particles into the alimentary canal of animals. The outer coat lowers the rate of degradation and promotes circulation of the drug in the body longer.




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