Antiapoptotic fusion protein delivery systems

Abstract

Apoptosis is a natural cell suicide mechanism to maintain homeostasis. However, many of the diseases encountered today are caused by aberrant apoptosis where excessive apoptosis leads to neurodegenerative disorders, ischemic heart disease, autoimmune disorders, infectious diseases, etc. A variety of antiapoptotic agents have been reported to interfere with the apoptosis pathway. These agents can be potential drug candidates for the treatment or prevention of diseases caused by dysregulated apoptosis. Obviously, world-wide pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are gearing up to develop antiapoptotic drugs with some products being commercially available. Polymeric drug delivery systems are essential to their success. Recent R&D efforts have focused on the chemical or bioconjugation of antiapoptotic proteins with the protein transduction domain (PTD) for higher cellular uptake with antibodies for specific targeting as well as with polymers to enhance the protein stability and prolonged effect with success observed both in vivo and in vitro. All these different fusion antiapoptotic proteins provide promising results for the treatment of dysregulated apoptosis diseases.