Therapeutic peptides are biologically-active agents derived from naturally occurring peptides or sometimes synthesized using a natural peptide as a template. Naturally occurring peptides are influential mediators in many key biological functions in the body, like blood sugar regulation, for example, and their unique status as compounds with low toxicity makes them attractive candidates for treating disease. Research has shown that therapeutic peptide medications have a high specificity for intended receptors, creating significantly lower side effect profiles than more traditional approaches to treatment. High specificity also reduces the chances of dangerous drug-to-drug interactions. Proponents of therapeutic peptide treatment are striving to develop a therapeutic peptide “library” from which they can mix and match different peptides to create highly-specific pharmaceuticals.
These agents are slowly becoming more prominent in open-minded clinical settings, like holistic cancer centers and other institutes that employ cutting-edge research scientists. Laboratories and case studies report positive research in combating solid tumors with a cell penetrating elastin-like therapeutic peptide. Stable, synthetically-produced peptides are being researched as new antimicrobial agents, which is welcomed news for many clinical practitioners for whom traditional antibiotics are losing their overall effectiveness. Newer positive outcomes are due, in part, to better routes of administration, which produces more pronounced clinically significant results.
Peptides suffer from an extremely low bioavailability when taken orally; the digestive process breaks up the peptide formulations quickly. This leads to quick degradation and elimination of therapeutic peptides before they can become medically active. For this reason, therapeutic peptides are usually given through injection, greatly increasing their pharmacological action. Nasal and pulmonary applications are also being developed and tested as suitable delivery methods.
Cancer treatment is on the forefront of therapeutic peptide research. Research has shown that some peptides are able to penetrate cancer cells relatively easily. Certain peptides have also exhibited the ability to inhibit communication between cancer cell colonies, reducing their defenses. In spite of receptive studies being reported, some researchers and doctors still hesitate to use therapeutic peptides in clinical practice. Main reasons for the hesitancy include unique systemic side effects, poor passage through the blood-brain barrier with short plasma half-life, and the limitation of choice in the drug delivery route.
Extended study is being done on the ability of therapeutic peptides to treat breast cancer. Dr. Wei-Zen, of Wayne State University, is on the forefront of research in this field. His approach focuses on the prevention of the progression of breast cancer cells by initiating immunotherapy with a recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) vaccine coupled with a cocktail of highly specific therapeutic peptides. Most types of breast tumors overexpress this antigen and the therapy has been shown in small, but carefully proctored, studies to induce anti-tumor immunity responses.
A well-known drug that treats visceral fat that can accumulate in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-positive individuals, tesamorelin, is a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medication in the United States and is approved for use in many European countries as well. The active chemical tesamorelin is an analog of growth hormone-releasing factor. This therapeutic peptide increases the release of growth hormone, which breaks down fatty tissues and can help build up and repair organ tissues that have been subjected to damage caused by the virus, toxic acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) medications, and other environmental sources.
