Peptides as multifunctional players in cancer therapy

Experimental & Molecular Medicine, Published online: 01 June 2023; doi:10.1038/s12276-023-01016-xTargeted drug delivery systems using tiny, non-toxic guiding molecules could transform cancer treatment and reduce chemotherapy resistance. Peptides are small molecules consisting of two or more amino acids. While they degrade quickly in the body, they show promise as guiding molecules for targeted drug delivery, with deep tissue penetration and low toxicity. Byungheon Lee at Kyungpook National University in Daegu, South Korea, and co-workers reviewed progress into novel therapeutic systems that use ‘tumour-homing’ peptides to target solid tumours. Adding peptides to nanoparticles that carry chemotherapy drugs enhances their penetration and accumulation in target tumours. Peptide-assisted delivery can also reduce the major adverse effects of chemotherapy, and appear to be widely tolerated in the body, even in the brain. Peptides that bind to and inhibit surface receptor proteins on tumour cells could also block cancer progression.
Source: Experimental and Molecular Medicine - Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Source Type: research