CHAPTER 9: Drug Delivery Applications of Peptide Materials

Peptides play an essential role in biotechnological applications as therapeutic and diagnostic agents due to their tunable activity for desired function. So far, a variety of peptide therapeutics and their peptide-based carriers have been engineered for drug delivery applications. However, in order to design and develop such systems for tissue-specific applications, the cellular microenvironment must be properly considered. Peptide-based materials have vast potential applications, particularly for cancer-related systems. Thus, in this chapter, we first focus on different design strategies and considerations for drug-release mechanisms in peptide-based materials. Then, we explain how tumor microenvironments may be distinguished from healthy tissue, including discussion of tumor-specific drug delivery strategies. Finally, the growing significance of peptide chemotherapeutics will be emphasized in terms of design concerns and current applications.