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

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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 20, 551–552 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-023-01505-0

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