Abstract
The concept of peptides as therapeutic agents has been historically disregarded by the pharmaceutical industry on account of their susceptibility to degradation, their size and consequent limitations in methods of delivery. Recently, however, there has been a surge of interest in peptides and their mimetics as potential antagonists for therapeutic intervention. This is in part due to the increased half-life and oral availability that has been achieved for a number of peptide-based systems, the introduction and acceptance of alternative delivery methods, and the prevalence of proteomics to identify countless protein–protein interaction targets. The use of peptides and molecules that mimic their function therefore has great potential to effectively target a range of proteins that are pathogenically implicated in numerous diseases.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The author is funded by the Wellcome Trust (Grant DBB2800) and an Age UK New Investigator Award (Grant DBB2200). The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.