Chapters authored
Lysine Dendrimers and Their Complexes with Therapeutic and Amyloid Peptides: Computer Simulation
Lysine dendrimers consist of natural lysine amino acid residues. Due to this reason, they are usually not as toxic as other dendrimers. Lysine dendrimers are often used in drug and gene delivery. These dendrimers penetrate blood-brain barrier and thus could be used for the delivery of drugs and other substances, for example, bioactive peptides to brain or elimination of disease-related peptides out of the brain. To do it, dendrimers should form complex with these peptides. In the present chapter, we describe computer simulation of the interaction of lysine dendrimer of the second generation with three different peptides and check does it form complexes with them. Two of these peptides (Semax and Epithalon) are nootropic peptides and third is the fragment of amyloid peptide, which forms amyloid fibrils and plaques in Alzheimer’s disease. Our simulation demonstrates that the lysine dendrimers form complexes with these therapeutics peptides. Thus, we demonstrated that lysine dendrimer is a good candidate for the delivery of therapeutic peptides. We also have shown that lysine dendrimer destroys existing stacks of amyloid peptides and forms a stable complex with them. Thus, it looks that it could be used in future for the treatment of Alzheimer’s diseases.
Part of the book: Dendrimers