Chapter 4 - Peptide and protein delivery through cellulose, hyaluronic acid, and heparin

Abstract

In recent years, protein and peptide-based drug delivery has received considerable interest for the delivery of many types of protein and peptides. Peptide-based drug delivery has been approved for different diseases such as cancer, hepatitis, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and leukemia. However, it is associated with limitations for the delivery via the oral route. From the oral delivery perspective, different barriers that result in low bioavailability (BA) of protein and peptides include intestinal and hepatic metabolism, solubility, size, and permeability. The poor membrane permeability of water-soluble peptides can be conquered by the structural modification of proteins and peptides. The metabolic degradation of different peptides can be regulated by adding enzyme inhibitors. Different technologies such as prolease technology, nano-particulate, and microparticulate delivery systems, mucoadhesive delivery of peptides, and microspheres have been developed for protein and peptide drug delivery. Natural polysaccharides such as hyaluronic acid (HA), cellulose, heparin, dextran, chitosan (CS), and chondroitin sulfate are employed as promising delivery for protein and peptides. They contain repeated mono and disaccharide units joined by enzyme-sensitive glycosidic linkage. These kinds of polysaccharides are having exceptional capabilities such as excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability, and nonimmunogenicity. Polysaccharides have great affinity and interaction with protein and peptide as well because of their biocompatibility and stimuli-responsive qualities and widely used to make polysaccharide-based nanoparticles for protein and peptide delivery. In this book chapter, we have mainly focused on polysaccharide-based system such as HA-based, heparin-based, and cellulose-based systems for the efficient delivery of protein and peptides. In addition, we have briefly talked about the limitations of each polysaccharide in protein and peptide drug delivery.