Recent advances and challenges in peptide drug development

Peptides are vital natural molecules that possess various functions as antibiotics, toxins, hormones, and venoms. Protein–protein interactions accomplish several primary cellular functions and have paved the pivotal role in designing the prime drug targets from last two decades. Results from several studies showed that abnormal protein–protein interactions relate to many infectious and neurodegenerative diseases. As a result, targeting protein–protein interactions are a way of vital strategy for the development of new drugs. The disturbance in intracellular protein–protein interactions with many tiny molecules has been enormously complicated for bigger or flat binding sites, as the antibodies are unable to cross the cell membrane to reach the target sites. Understanding and characterizing the protein–peptide interaction and recognition mechanisms is considered as significant part for the discovery of peptide-based strategies to obstruct with endogenous protein interactions, or betterment of the binding specificity of accessible approaches. Significantly several computation-assisted coherent designs for peptide therapeutics have been developed to deliver complete docking for peptide–protein interaction.