Peptoid special delivery

Researchers at the University of Karlsruhe have designed two peptoids that differentially deliver payloads to intracellular destinations in vitro without any toxic effects. The technique could produce carriers that deliver drugs exclusively to their intracellular targets-if peptoids prove to be as promising in vivo as they are in vitro.

Intracellular targets pose two challenges for therapeutic developers: getting compounds to penetrate the cell membrane and, once inside, having them actually find the target. Small molecules must typically exploit surface receptors to enter cells, but certain types of peptides can enter cells without receptor help. Over the past two decades, several classes of peptides and peptide-like molecules have been developed as carriers to deliver drug payloads to intracellular targets. But such carriers must often straddle a fine line between in vivo stability and toxicity...