The Therapeutic Potential of Cystine-Knot Microproteins

Owing to their inherent extraordinary thermal and biological stability and their small size, cystine-knot microproteins provide attractive scaffolds for the development of peptide-based pharmaceuticals. They are readily accessible through recombinant bacterial production or solid phase chemical synthesis. Highly potent and selective microproteins with predefined binding characteristics have been obtained by rational protein design as well as by combinatorial library screening. Moreover, oral administration of microproteins seems to be feasible. With the first natural microprotein already successfully marketed as an analgesic it can be expected that tailor-made therapeutic candidates will follow over the next years.