The Applications Of Peptide Therapy

By Armand Zeiders


Peptide therapy has many possible medical applications. Medical researchers believe that peptide therapy might eventually be used to treat a variety of autoimmune disorders as well as diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and even common problems such as allergies.

Peptides are interesting and complex structures that are created when amino acids become linked. The peptides will then form what are known as proteins, and there are many different kinds of proteins carrying out hundreds of cellular functions. These functions include everything from replicating DNA to transferring molecules from one place to another.

The process begins with amino acids, which are joined in what is called a peptide bond. These long peptides are flat or planar, but they also are flexible so they can fold, and this effects what type of protein will be formed. When there is a mutation in the way a peptide folds, it can have serious biological repercussions. For example, a peptide formation mutation causes red blood cells to form abnormally, and this can lead to a disease such as sickle cell anemia. There are many other diseases that are caused by mutations with the peptide framework.

While this process occurs naturally in our bodies, it also can be recreated and occur in a laboratory, and many scientists are doing this today. This process, which is call peptide synthesis, can recreate a specific protein or peptide and also can be used to create new types of peptides that do not occur in nature.

Peptide synthesis has many applications for scientists. These peptides can be studied do determine whether or not a particular protein has been isolated. Scientists also use peptide synthesis as a way to study the structure of proteins. In addition, the use of peptide synthesis to create medical treatments and vaccines is also a very important application. Researchers often rely on private biotech companies to produce custom synthetic peptides.

There are already many studies that show the usefulness of peptide therapy in fighting a huge range of diseases. After all, mutations occur in all different types of proteins, and each of these mutations has serious ramifications. Developing a therapy that can alter the peptides means that researchers might be able to alleviate the effects of or completely halt the progression of diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, cancer and much more. A recent study using mice showed that the effects of Parkinson's disease could be slowed using a new vaccine. Other studies indicate that peptide therapy can be used to greatly slow the progression of growth in cancerous tumors.




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