- S AN F rancisco - For drug makers, discovery a new drug is not the whole battle. Getting a compound inside the cells can be equally challenging. drug soluble in water, for example, can travel in the bloodstream, but once they arrive at their destination, they are stopped by the fatty membrane surrounding cells. The researchers found a chemical tag that seems to act as a universal pass, escorting compounds inside cells.
Discover the new mat, a peptide, or a short protein fragment, was inspired in part by a surprising source: the AIDS virus. In the early 1980s, researchers discovered that a protein fragment called Tat helps HIV viral proteins enter cells. Other research teams have shown that binding Tat drug can help boost absorption. But Tat is difficult to synthesize and too expensive for widespread use, so a team led by organic chemist Paul Wender of Stanford University undertook to find a cheaper alternative, more effective.
The researchers began by analyzing Tat then systematically rearrange its amino acids. After testing many candidates, they found only one version - a chain of arginine - which was even more effective than Tat in infiltrating cells. When they tested the peptide, it carries a drug through the grafted human skin on a mouse - an impossible feat without the peptide, they reported last week at a meeting of the American Chemical Society
"This is a. significant development," said John Voorhees, a dermatologist at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. When doctors treat skin conditions, they give a drug in capsule and hopefully some of them will make its way from the intestine to the bloodstream and eventually inside the cells skin. A topical cream may be more effective for the treatment of conditions such as psoriasis and eczema and may carry fewer side effects, Voorhees said.
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