Peptide-based polymer therapeutics

Abstract

Polypeptides are envisaged to achieve a major impact on a number of different relevant areas such as biomedicine and biotechnology. Acquired knowledge and the increasing interest on amino acids, peptides and proteins is establishing a large panel of these biopolymers whose physical, chemical and biological properties are ruled by their controlled sequences and composition. Polymer therapeutics has helped to establish these polypeptide-based constructs as polymeric nanomedicines for different applications, such as disease treatment and diagnostics. Herein, we provide an overview of the advantages of these systems and the main methodologies for their synthesis, highlighting the different polypeptide architectures and the current research towards clinical applications. © 2014 by the authors.