Delivery System Based on Elastin-like Polypeptide

The primary goal of model delivery in diseases therapy is to transport sufficient drugs to target disease site(s) while minimizing their exposure to healthy tissues. Currently, with integrated targeted delivery system development and engineering techniques, Creative Biolabs offers a comprehensive targeted delivery development platform that provides either individual service modules or a fully comprehensive service. We tailor services to develop custom targeted delivery systems based on elastin-like polypeptide to meet the needs of our clients.

Elastin-like Polypeptide

Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) are a type of synthesized biopolymers, which have become an area of interest for their potentially practical benefits. They are used in the fields of cancer therapy, tissue scaffolding, and protein purification. For cancer therapy, research has found that manipulation of ELPs, through the addition of functional groups, can facilitate the ELP to conjugate with cytotoxic drugs. Besides, ELPs may be able to serve as polymeric scaffolds to promote tissue regeneration. ELPs can be engineered to bind to specific proteins in solution. They are involved in the protein purification with the ability to undergo morphological changes at certain temperatures, resulting in the ELPs bound to specific proteins to be separated out from the solution via experimental techniques such as centrifugation.

Fig.1 The ELPs properties and strategies of developing ELPs-based antitumor drugs.¹

Delivery System Based on Elastin-like Polypeptide

ELPs can serve as delivery tools and have been conjugated to a large number of small-molecule drugs attempted to improve the bioavailability and pharmacokinetics to achieve the goals, i.e. a reduction in the therapeutic dose and an increased drug efficiency. ELPs possess certain intrinsic advantages for this purpose, one of which is their biodegradability as they degrade into natural amino acids, thus allowing the use of high MW ELPs, even above the renal clearance limit, without the risk of accumulation.

Fig.2 Schematic representation of photodynamic therapy using ELP-PS in combination with ELP-PD.²

In addition, other important properties of ELPs that are often exploited to increase their delivery efficiency are their temperature sensitivity and ability to self-assemble. The latter is particularly relevant as regards to spontaneous assembly into nanocarriers. Several studies have confirmed that conjugation of the drug is not adverse to these beneficial properties of ELPs. In fact, in some cases, they can even be improved and tuned as a consequence of drug conjugation. An example of this is hyperthermia therapy for cancer, where it has been demonstrated that a precise heating of deep-seated tissues can be used to thermally target ELPs to internal organs by making use of the thermal sensitivity of ELPs.

Features of Our Targeted Delivery System

• Drug loading and control of drug release rate
• Long-term half-life
• Intracellular delivery of drugs
• High solubility and stability
• Biodegradability

In recent years, Creative Biolabs has provided many targeted delivery services for our customers all over the world. We are therefore proud to design and provide the high-efficient services and the high-quality products to meet our client's specific requirements. If you are interested in our service, please do not hesitate to contact us for more details.

References

1. Jiang, Aiguo, et al. "Engineered elastin-like polypeptides: An efficient platform for enhanced cancer treatment." Frontiers in Pharmacology 13 (2023): 1113079.
2. Shi, Xianggang, et al. "Application of elastin-like polypeptide in tumor therapy." Cancers 14.15 (2022): 3683.

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