Recent advances in peptide-drug conjugates as anticancer agents

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Pharmacology
• Drug Delivery

Background:

• Conventional chemotherapy faces challenges due to non-specificity and severe adverse effects.
• Peptide-drug conjugates (PDCs) represent a targeted therapeutic approach to enhance oncology treatment.
• PDCs aim to improve drug delivery to tumor sites, increasing efficacy and reducing toxicity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the structure, components, and functions of Peptide-drug conjugates (PDCs).
• To summarize recent advancements in PDC development, including target selection, design, and anticancer applications.
• To introduce PROTAC-based PDCs and discuss future challenges and solutions in PDC development.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of Peptide-drug conjugates (PDCs) in oncology.
• Analysis of PDC structure: tumor-homing peptide, chemical linker, and payload.
• Exploration of emerging technologies like PROTAC-based PDCs.

Main Results:

• PDCs enable targeted drug delivery, enhancing antitumor efficacy and minimizing damage to healthy tissues.
• Recent advances show progress in target selection, design strategies, and anticancer applications of PDCs.
• PROTAC-based PDCs represent an innovative approach in targeted protein degradation.

Conclusions:

• PDCs are a promising strategy for targeted cancer therapy, overcoming limitations of conventional chemotherapy.
• Continued research in PDC design and target selection is crucial for clinical success.
• Addressing current challenges will pave the way for the future development and application of PDCs in oncology.