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Development of cyclic peptides that can be administered orally to inhibit disease targets

Cyclic peptides can bind challenging disease targets, but their oral application is hindered by digestion and absorption issues. We developed a versatile method for the synthesis and functional screening of vast numbers of synthetic cyclic peptides and identified peptides with high inhibitory activity, stability and oral bioavailability in rats.

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Fig. 1: Strategy for the combinatorial synthesis of cyclic peptide libraries to enable the development of a thrombin inhibitor.

References

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This is a summary of: Merz, M. L. et al. De novo development of small cyclic peptides that are orally bioavailable. Nat. Chem. Biol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-023-01496-y (2023).

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Development of cyclic peptides that can be administered orally to inhibit disease targets. Nat Chem Biol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-023-01505-0

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