Application and Progress of Functional Peptides in Tumor Therapy

The peptide is intrinsically bioactive, biodegradable, biocompatible, and easy to undergo chemical modification, which makes it perfect for targeted drug delivery system (DDS). The DDSs based on targeting peptides and responsive peptides are able to deliver the drug into the tumor area. After the arrival of the carrier in tumor, the accurate release is realized upon the stimulus of special microenvironment of tumor tissue or the exogenous stimulus. The carrier based on peptides can reduce the toxic and side effects and improve to the most the anti-tumor effect of drug. The present paper outlined the several classes of peptides with targeting and stimulus-responsive properties, and summarized the research progress in applications of different types of functional peptides in tumor therapy.