Tissue engineering biologically active peptides

Figure 1. Schematic of the iterative optimization approach to designing a tissue engineering scaffold with the addition of a biologically active peptide.

Researchers have reasoned that if the water-soluble peptide leu-enkephalin could be conjugated with an oxidizable hydrophobic chain, and further shielded with a hydrophobic domain provided by cholesterol via an ester linkage, the modihed leu-enkephalin could become sufficiently hydrophobic to breach the blood-brain barrier. The oxidation of one of the engineered domains in the brain would produce an ionic form that cannot redistribute back into blood, and is essentially locked in. The ester linkages could then be hydrolyzed by esterases in brain tissues to release biologically active leu-enkephalin (Figure 13.12). 

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