Peptides have emerged as a unique class of therapeutics that bridge the gap between small molecules and biologics. Their high specificity, favorable safety profiles, and diverse biological functions make them promising candidates across therapeutic areas, including metabolic disorders, oncology, infectious diseases, and pain management. Advances in phage display, chemical synthesis, structural modification, and drug delivery technologies have significantly accelerated peptide drug development. This review highlights recent progress in peptide therapeutics, covering their advantages and limitations, strategies for design and modification, use of noncanonical amino acids, and applications in drug delivery systems. In addition, the roles of therapeutic peptides in diabetes, cancer, antiviral and antimicrobial therapies, and peptide-drug conjugates are discussed, with emphasis on emerging opportunities and challenges for future clinical translation.
Bhadra et al. (Sun,) studied this question.