Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 16, Issue 3, 2016

Peptides are being successfully used in various fields including therapy and drug delivery. With advancement in nanotechnology and targeted delivery carrier systems, suitable modification of peptides has enabled achievement of many desirable goals over-riding some of the major disadvantages associated with the delivery of peptides in vivo. Conjugation or physical encapsulation of peptides to various nanocarriers, such as liposomes, micelles and solid-lipid nanoparticles, has improved their in vivo performance multi-fold. The amenability of peptides to modification in chemistry and functionalization with suitable nanocarriers are very relevant aspects in their use and have led to the use of ‘smart’ nanoparticles with suitable linker chemistries that favor peptide targeting or release at the desired sites, minimizing off-target effects. This review focuses on how nanotechnology has been used to improve the number of peptide applications. The paper also focuses on the chemistry behind peptide conjugation to nanocarriers, the commonly employed linker chemistries and the several improvements that have already been achieved in the areas of peptide use with the help of nanotechnology.

Nanomedicine is an exponentially growing field, and gold nanoparticles (GNPs) in particular are extensively used in research due to their abilities as anti-cancer drug carriers for chemotherapy and as dose enhancers in radiotherapy. Most GNP research in the past involved a system where GNP localization was in the cytoplasm of the cell. However, it is predicted that therapy response can be enhanced if GNPs can be effectively targeted into the nucleus. With nuclear targeting, there is a possibility in producing additional free radicals in response to irradiation within the nucleus. This can cause more damage to the DNA of cancer cells. In this review article, we discuss the successful NP-based platforms available for nuclear targeting. In addition, we also present the possible mechanisms of nuclear targeting in detail followed by its applications in cancer therapy.

Self-assembled peptide nanomaterials display the advantageous properties of injectability, biodegradability and biocompatibility. These peptide nanomaterials, by self-assembling, can be widely applied in such fields as drug delivery (small molecules and large molecules), regenerative medicine and nanobiotechnology. In this review, we mainly discuss the properties of these peptide nanomaterials in their physical, chemical and biological aspects. Also discussed are recent advances in their potential applications as drug delivery systems and for uses in regenerative medicine. These current advances show a bright future for the development and clinical applications of self-assembled peptide-based nanotechnology and nanomedicine. However, there are still some big challenges for us to face before these peptide nanomaterials eventually can be used for the treatment of human diseases.

Cancer is a heterogeneous disease that results from a multi-step process, being characterized by uncontrolled proliferation, invasion and metastasis. The understanding that tumor cells can be recognized by host immune cells has highlighted the potential advantages of using vaccination purposes to eliminate cancer cells, while avoiding severe side effects associated to conventional cancer treatments. Interesting outcomes have been obtained with the new identified tumor associated antigens (TAAs), including recombinant proteins and peptides. However, these molecules are weakly immunogenic, demanding the concomitant use of adjuvants to boost and achieve a strong tumor-specific immune response. Different classes of nanosystems have been used to protect and deliver several vaccine components. In vitro and preclinical studies have emphasized their promising role to attain a prolonged eradication of cancer cells, including metastasis. However, some studies support the co-entrapment of multiple adjuvants and TAAs within a single particulate carrier, while others indicate that stronger immune responses were obtained using a mixture of nanocarriers entrapping different combinations of TAAs and adjuvants. These apparently contradictory results may be related to nanocarrier physicochemical properties, which have a profound impact on their interaction with targeted cells and consequent biological effects. This review discusses the application of nanoscale systems as cancer vaccines, highlighting the particular characteristics of tumor biology and immunology that have been used to guide the design of these nanodelivery tools. We also aim to explore the major weaknesses that have prevented their wide application in the clinic to overcome the delivery, efficacy and safety issues associated to biological entities.

Covalent conjugation of anticancer drugs to targeting carriers (e.g., antibodies or small molecules) capable of selectively binding to tumor-specific antigens, is emerging as a successful strategy to overcome the drawbacks of traditional chemotherapy. Due to its overexpression on blood vessels of human tumors, αvβ3 integrin is one of the most studied receptors of tumor-targeted therapeutics: several peptides and peptidomimetics, bearing the RGD (Arg-Gly-Asp) recognition sequence, have been developed as integrin ligands and linked to different anticancer drugs. The resulting integrin- targeted small molecule-drug conjugates (SMDCs) are able to release the cytotoxic agents upon cleavage of a linker under specific conditions (i.e., hydrolysis, enzymatic action or reduction). Despite the significant efforts made in this field, αvβ3 integrin-targeted SMDCs are still far from the clinic. In this review, we survey this approach with a special focus on the different linkers employed and the reported biological activities in vitro and in vivo.

Absence of safe and efficient methods of nucleic acids delivery is one of the major issues which limits the development of human gene therapy. Highly efficient viral vectors raise questions due to safety reasons. Among non-viral vectors peptide-based carriers can be considered as good candidates for the development of “artificial viruses” - multifunctional polyplexes that mimic viruses. Suggested strategy to obtain multifunctionality is to combine several peptide modules into one modular carrier. Different kinds of peptide modules are needed for successful overcoming barriers of nucleic acids transport into the cells. Design of such modules and establishment of structure-function relationships are issues of importance to researchers working in the field of nucleic acids delivery.

The integrin receptors represent valuable targets for therapeutic interventions; being overexpressed in many pathological states, their inhibition can be effective to treat a number of severe diseases. Since integrin functions are mediated by interactions with ECM protein ligands, the inhibition can be achieved by interfering with such interactions using small mimetics of the integrin-ligand recognition motifs (e.g. RGD, LDV, etc.). In this review, we focus on the antagonists with peptideheterocycle hybrid structures. The introduction of well-designed scaffolds has met considerable success in the rational design of highly stable, bioavailable, and conformationally defined antagonists. Two main approaches are discussed herein. The first approach is the use of scaffolds external to the main recognition motifs, aimed at improving conformational definition. In the second approach, heterocyclic cores are introduced within the recognition motifs, giving access to libraries of 3D diverse candidate antagonists.

In the last decade, we have been developing some gold(III) derivatives showing interesting antitumor properties and reduced systemic and renal toxicity, compared to the clinically-established reference drug cisplatin. Starting from the rationale at the base of our investigations, this review has been divided into two sections, with respect to our patented first- (aminoderivatives) and secondgeneration (peptidomimetics) potential drugs. Every section describes the in vitro and in vivo anticancer activity of the compounds, chosen as models, towards different types of tumor. In particular, we summarize the results achieved so far, in particular taking into account the latest in-depth studies related to their activity, mechanism of action and toxicological profile. Taken together, our data could open up new prospects for further advanced preclinical pharmacological testing.