A series of promising truncated antibacterial tripeptides derived from lactoferricin has been prepared, and their in vitro metabolic stability in the main metabolic compartments, plasma, liver, kidney, stomach, duodenum, and brain, has been investigated for the first time. The potential stabilizing effect of truncation, C-terminal capping, and introduction of the bulky synthetic amino acid biphenylalanine is also investigated. The drug-like peptides displayed large differences in half-lives in the different matrixes ranging from 4.2 min in stomach and duodenum to 355.9 min in liver. Kinetic analysis of the metabolites revealed that several different degrading enzymes simultaneously target the different peptide bonds and that the outcome of the tested strategies to increase the stability is clearly enzyme-specific. Some of the metabolic enzymes even prefer the synthetic modifications incorporated over the natural counterparts. Collectively, it is shown that the necessary antibacterial pharmacophore generates compounds that are not only potent antibacterial peptides, but excellent substrates for the main degrading enzymes. All the amide bonds are thus rapidly targeted by different enzymes despite the short peptidic sequences of the tested compounds. Hence, our results illustrate that several structural changes are needed before these compounds can be considered for oral administration. Strategies to overcome such metabolic challenges are discussed.
Peptide drugs, as all types of pharmaceuticals, require adequate specifications (i.e. quality attributes, procedures and acceptance criteria) as part of their quality assurance to ensure the safety and efficacy of drug substances (i.e. active pharmaceutical ingredients) and drug products (i.e. finished pharmaceutical dosage forms). Compendial monographs are updated regularly to keep up with the most recent advances in peptide synthesis (e.g. reduced by-products) and analytical technology. Nevertheless, currently applied pharmacopoeial peptide specifications are barely harmonized yet (e.g. large differences between the European Pharmacopoeia and the United States Pharmacopeia), increasing the manufacturers' burden of performing analytical procedures in different ways, using different acceptance criteria. Additionally, the peptide monographs are not always consistent within a single pharmacopoeia. In this review, we highlight the main differences and similarities in compendial peptide specifications (including identification, purity and assay). Based on comparison, and together with additional information from peptide drug substance manufacturers and public evaluation reports on registration files of non-pharmacopoeial peptide drugs, a consistent monograph structure is proposed.
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