Elastin-like polypeptides and their applications in anticancer drug delivery systems: a review

• Published in: Drug delivery Vol. 22; no. 2; p. 156
• Main Authors: Saxena, Rubha, Nanjan, Moola Joghee
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01-02-2015
• Subjects: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents - administration & dosage; Antineoplastic Agents - chemistry; Antineoplastic Agents - therapeutic use; Biopharmaceutics - trends; Drug Carriers - administration & dosage; Drug Carriers - chemistry; Drug Carriers - therapeutic use; Drug Delivery Systems; Elastin - chemistry; Elastin - genetics; Elastin - metabolism; Hot Temperature; Humans; Molecular Weight; Nanostructures - chemistry; Nanotechnology - trends; Oligopeptides - chemical synthesis; Oligopeptides - chemistry; Oligopeptides - genetics; Oligopeptides - metabolism; Peptide Fragments - chemical synthesis; Peptide Fragments - chemistry; Peptide Fragments - genetics; Peptide Fragments - metabolism; Peptides - chemistry; Peptides - genetics; Peptides - metabolism; Protein Conformation; Protein Engineering - trends; Recombinant Proteins - chemistry; Recombinant Proteins - metabolism; Solubility; drug targeting; Cancer chemotherapy; drug delivery; elastin; elastin-like polypeptides
• ISSN: 1521-0464
• DOI: 10.3109/10717544.2013.853210

Elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) are large molecular weight biopolymers. They have been widely studied as macromolecular carriers for targeted delivery of drugs. The aim of the present article is to review the available information on ELPs (including our recent investigations), their properties, drug delivery applications to tumor sites and future perspectives. This review also provides information on the use of short synthetic ELPs for making ELP-drug conjugates, for targeted delivery of anticancer drugs. In the present review we also focus on the point that short ELPs can also be used for targeting anticancer drugs to tumor sites as they behave similar to long ELPs regarding their capacity to undergo inverse temperature transition (ITT) behavior.