Peptide-Based Drug-Delivery Systems in Biotechnological Applications: Recent Advances and Perspectives

Peptides of natural and synthetic source are compounds operating in a wide range of biological interactions. They play a key role in biotechnological applications as both therapeutic and diagnostic tools. They are easily synthesized thanks to solid-phase peptide devices where the amino acid sequence can be exactly selected at molecular levels, by tuning the basic units. Recently, peptides achieved resounding success in drug delivery and in nanomedicine smart applications. These applications are the most significant challenge of the last decades: they can selectively deliver drugs on only pathological tissues whilst saving the other districts of the body. This specific feature allows to reduce the drug side effects and to increase the drug efficacy. In this context, peptides based aggregates present many advantages including biocompatibility, high drug loading capacities, chemical diversity, specific targeting and stimuli responsive drug delivery. A dual behavior is observed: on the one hand they can fulfill a structural and bioactive role. In this review, we focus on the design and the characterization of drug delivery systems using peptide-based carriers; moreover, we will also highlight the peptide ability to self-assemble and to actively address nanosystems towards specific targets.