Pro-angiogenic peptides in biomedicine

Pro-angiogenic therapy provides a promising new perspective in tackling of many common and severe pathological conditions, such as central and peripheral vascular diseases. Pro-angiogenic therapy also finds interesting applications in the regenerative medicine for the treatment of chronic wounds and in tissue engineering. However, clinical studies on therapeutic angiogenesis, mainly performed by administrating growth factors, have not led to convincing results until now, mainly due to the unfavorable pharmacokinetic and to safety concerns. Thus, the research of new pro-angiogenic molecules endowed of improved pharmacological profile is strongly encouraged. This review focuses on Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) mimetic peptides exerting a pro-angiogenic activity, which are considered among the most promising alternatives to the VEGF based therapy. Peptides show a great potential in drug discovery, as they feature straightforward development approaches, robust and cheap synthetic methodologies for their preparation and functionalization, improved safety and efficacy profiles. Thus, pro-angiogenic peptides represent a valuable alternative to traditional drugs for biomedical applications in cardiovascular diseases and regenerative medicine.