Computer hardware

Biology

Materials science

Peptide

Biochemistry

Computer science

Drug

Computational biology

Drug discovery

Interfacing

Combinatorial chemistry

Nanotechnology

In vitro

Pharmacology

Medicine

Chemistry

Metabolic stability

Cell permeability

Journal of the American Chemical Society

Peptides as a therapeutic modality attract much attention due to their synthetic accessibility, high degree of specific binding, and the ability to target protein surfaces traditionally considered "undruggable". Unfortunately, at the same time, other pharmacological properties of a generic peptide, such as metabolic stability and cell permeability, are quite poor, which limits the success of de novo discovered biologically active peptides as drug candidates. Here, we review how macrocyclization as well as the incorporation of nonproteogenic amino acids and various conjugation strategies may be utilized to improve on these characteristics to create better drug candidates. We analyze recent progress and remaining challenges in improving individual pharmacological properties of bioactive peptides, and offer our opinion on interfacing these, often conflicting, considerations, to create balanced drug candidates as a potential way to make further progress in this area.

Macrocyclic Peptides as Drug Candidates: Recent Progress and Remaining Challenges