Cyclic peptides show promise for modulating difficult disease targets; however, they often cannot be administered orally. The authors developed a method to synthesize and screen large libraries of small cyclic peptides while enabling the simultaneous interrogation of activity and permeability. This approach was applied to the disease target thrombin to discover peptides with high affinity, stability and oral bioavailability of up to 18% in rats.
- Manuel L. Merz
- Sevan Habeshian
- Christian Heinis