Gifts from the Gila monster

C&EN Senior Correspondent Ann Thayer explains that peptides play central roles in many key body processes involved in health and disease. As drugs, they have several advantages over traditional medications, including higher potency and lower toxicity. However, efforts to enlist peptides more extensively in medical treatment have stumbled due to peptides' short duration of action, tendency to be digested by enzymes in the stomach and other problems.

Thayer describes advances in overcoming those problems with 60 peptide drugs sold worldwide having sales of $13 billion in 2010 and scores of others in the pipeline. Some of the most successful of those already in use are based on peptides found naturally in animals like the Gila monster. A companion article describes how manufacturers are stepping up production, collaborating with peptide discovery companies. Peptide drugs are now longer and more complex than those developed earlier, but improvements have made production faster and more cost-effective.

More information: “Improving Peptides”: http://pubs.acs.or … 22cover.html

Provided by American Chemical Society