Recent advances of anti-cancer therapies including the use of cell-penetrating peptides

Abstract

Cancer is one of the major growing public health problems making the development of new anti-cancer treatment strategies still compulsory. Conventionally used chemotherapies are quite often associated with severe side effects. One reason is limited cell-permeability of the used drugs resulting in only poor overall bioavailability. During the last thirty years, cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have extensively been studied as efficient vehicles for several classes of cargos, and the development of novel therapeutic applications including CPPs has gained a major role in current cancer research. This review summarizes recent trends in CPP-mediated cargo delivery with a future impact on anti-cancer therapy.