Inventory of Several Sources of Peptide Drugs

Polypeptide is a chemically active substance ubiquitous in organisms. It is a type of compound composed of amino acids connected by peptide bonds. Compared with other chemical drugs and biotechnology drugs, peptide drugs have significant activity, strong specificity, and receptors. The affinity is good, the toxicity is weak, and it is generally not easy to accumulate in the body; the immunogenicity is weak or even non-existent relative to the protein, and the structure is easy to modify, easy to produce, and can even be solved by synthetic methods. Peptide drug research and development is a hot spot in the current pharmaceutical market. Today, let’s briefly understand what are the main sources of peptide drugs?

Naturally extracted peptides

Such as osteopeptide. There are active components in some natural products, which can be extracted from simple mixtures by solvent extraction. If the natural products have complex components and very few active components, it is necessary to use enzymatic hydrolysis or microwave-assisted digestion to make the protein The precursor is degraded, and the active fragments are separated and detected by the detection equipment, and the active small peptides are quickly and effectively found from the mixture.

Chemical synthesis of peptides

The biological activity of peptides is extensive and important, and can be widely used in the endocrine system, immune system, digestive system, cardiovascular system, blood system, musculoskeletal system, etc., and with the maturity of peptide synthesis technology and the improvement of pharmaceutical preparation technology, peptide drugs Research and development has become the focus of attention of domestic and foreign drug research and development companies. The chemical synthesis of peptides includes solid-phase synthesis, liquid-phase synthesis, and solid-phase and liquid-phase combined fragment synthesis.

The liquid-phase method is the first peptide synthesis method developed, and the solid-phase peptide synthesis method is currently the commonly used method for peptide synthesis. After years of research and development, the solid-phase peptide synthesis method not only overcomes the time-consuming and cumbersome liquid phase synthesis, but also reduces the loss caused by the operation. The biggest advantage is that all the purification steps in the synthesis are simply washed and filtered. Complete, greatly reduce the difficulty of purification, has the advantages of convenience and quickness, simple operation and high yield. Its superiority is also expressed in the ease of automation. In the research and development of peptide drugs, the many characteristics of peptides have caused difficulties and challenges in the analysis process. In the analysis of peptide biotechnology drugs, Medicilon Biotechnology Drug Analysis Department flexibly uses ELISA, ECL, TRFIA, CLIA, IF, IP, CoIP, qPCR, FACS, ELISpot, enzymology and other methods to support cutting-edge biology Drugs such as proteins, antibodies (monoclonal antibodies, bi- or multispecific antibodies, antibody fragments), ADCs, peptides, nucleic acids, vaccines and cell gene therapy and other drugs in the early development, preclinical and clinical stages of PK/TK/Immunogenicity (Total ADA& Nab)/Biomarker&Cytokine and other research evaluation.

Gene recombination

Recombinant gene polypeptides, such as laglutide, insulin, etc. As a new biological method that has only started to develop rapidly in recent decades, gene recombination technology has received widespread attention since its inception and has been widely used in the field of medicine. With the progress of modern biotechnology, especially the introduction of genetic engineering technology, people can synthesize more peptide drugs in a short period of time and make it possible to produce peptide drugs on a large scale.

Synthetic biology

Synthetic biology is an emerging field formed by the intersection of biology, engineering, chemistry and information technology. It is the design and construction of new biological accessories, equipment and systems, and the redesign of surviving natural biology for application purposes. system. Its application fields are extremely wide, including medicine, chemicals, food, industrial enzymes, personal care, energy, agriculture, etc., among which medicine, chemical industry and energy are the key areas of synthetic biology product development.

According to reports, Li Jian’s research group from the School of Material Science and Technology of Shanghai University of Science and Technology has made important progress in the in vitro biosynthesis of complex natural products. It is the first to use cell-free synthetic biology to achieve the in vitro biosynthesis of the non-ribosomal polypeptide antibiotic valinomycin. . In view of the advantages of the cell-free system with controllable reaction conditions, fast reaction rate, high product yield, and no cytotoxic effects, cell-free synthetic biology will provide a new way for the discovery and synthesis of natural product drugs. This method has the characteristics of high throughput, and will greatly simplify the research and identification process of unknown (new) natural product synthetic gene clusters.

At present, people have been able to use high-tech methods to isolate a variety of biologically active peptides from animals, plants and microorganisms. Their physiological functions are mainly immune regulation, growth promotion, anti-thrombosis, anti-hypertension, lowering cholesterol, and inhibiting bacteria. , Virus, anti-cancer, anti-oxidation and free radical scavenging effects, improve element absorption and mineral transportation. Although the development of peptide drugs still faces huge challenges, with the development of science and technology in the future, people will overcome the shortcomings of peptide drugs, and new peptide technologies will be applied to pharmaceuticals.