Apolipoprotein Mimetic Peptides: Potential New Therapies for Cardiovascular Diseases

Since the seminal breakthrough of treating diabetic patients with insulin in the 1920s, there has been great interest in developing other proteins and their peptide mimetics as therapies for a wide variety of other medical disorders. Currently, there are at least 60 different peptides that have been approved for human use and over 150 peptides that are in various stages of clinical development. Peptides mimetic of the major proteins on lipoproteins, namely apolipoproteins, have also been developed first as tools for understanding apolipoprotein structure and more recently as potential therapeutics. In this review, we discuss the biochemistry, peptide mimetics design and clinical trials for peptides based on apoA-I, apoE and apoC-II. We primarily focus on applications of peptide mimetics related to cardiovascular diseases. We conclude with a discussion on the limitations of peptides as therapeutic agents and the challenges that need to be overcome before apolipoprotein mimetic peptides can be developed into new drugs.

Automated summary

Since the breakthrough of using insulin to treat diabetic patients in the 1920s, there has been a growing interest in developing various proteins and their peptide mimetics for treating medical disorders. Currently, there are over 60 approved peptides for human use and more than 150 peptides in clinical development. This review mainly focuses on peptide mimetics related to cardiovascular diseases, discussing the biochemistry, design, and clinical trials of peptides based on apoA-I, apoE, and apoC-II, while also addressing the limitations and challenges in developing apolipoprotein mimetic peptides into new drugs.