Design of amino acid-based self-assembled nano-drugs for therapeutic applications

Amino acids have attracted considerable attention in drug development because they play important roles in many physiological and pathological processes. In the past several decades, various amino acid supplementations have been reported to have potential therapeutic efficacy for the treatment of many disorders in clinical trials. However, their effectiveness is controversially reported, which may be explained by poor pharmacokinetic properties of such low-molecular-weight agents. Amino acid-based self-assembled macromolecules could overcome the aforementioned drawbacks by improving the pharmacokinetic profile and accumulation of specific molecules at target sites to enhance the therapeutic effect. In this review, we have discussed the current therapeutic applications of certain amino acids, and have introduced our approach of using amino acid-based self-assembled nanostructures as novel therapeutic agents.