Cell penetrating peptides: A concise review with emphasis on biomedical applications

• Published in: Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy 2018-12, Vol.108, p.1090-1096
• Main Authors: Derakhshankhah, Hossein, Jafari, Samira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Biomedical Technology; Carrier; Cell Death - drug effects; Cell penetrating peptides; Cell-Penetrating Peptides - adverse effects; Cell-Penetrating Peptides - chemistry; Cell-Penetrating Peptides - pharmacology; Cellular uptake mechanisms; Drug delivery; Endocytosis; Humans
• ISSN: 0753-3322; 1950-6007
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2018.09.097

•Cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) are positively charged short peptides with 5–30 amino acids.•CPPs possess high transduction efficiency and low cytotoxicity.•TAT and penetratin were first CPPs.•CPPs have a wide variety of biomedical applications. The biological membranes as natural permeable barriers are required for survival and function of living cells. However, these natural barriers could be a major obstacle for the efficient intracellular delivery of therapeutic agents. In recent two decades, the use of peptides as novel carriers for intracellular cargo delivery has been received more attention by introducing the cell penetrating peptides (CPPs). CPPs, protein transduction domains, are an attractive class of short peptide sequences which can translocate across the cell membrane. Owing to the ability of CPPs to transport across cellular membrane, they can employ as an appropriate carrier for various cargos include nucleic acid, proteins, SiRNA, therapeutic agents, nanoparticles and so on. In this review, we describe the classifications of CPPs, their uptake mechanisms as well as biomedical applications of the CPPs.