Cell-penetrating peptides: tools for intracellular delivery of therapeutics

The main problem of therapeutic efficiency lies in the crossing of cellular membranes. Therefore, significant effort is being made to develop agents which can cross these barriers and deliver therapeutic agents into cellular compartments. In recent years, a large amount of data on the use of peptides as delivery agents has accumulated. Several groups have published the first positive results using peptides for the delivery of therapeutic agents in relevant animal models. These peptides, called cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs), are short peptides (fewer than 30 residues) with a net positive charge and acting in a receptor- and energy-independent manner. Here, we give an extensive review of peptide-mediated delivery systems and discuss their applications, with particular focus on the mechanisms leading to cellular internalization.Received 14 March 2005; received after revision 25 April 2005; accepted 28 April 2005