Rational design of nanocarriers for oral peptide administration

Abstract

Despite the increasing therapeutic potential of peptide drugs, their exploitation has been greatly hampered due to their necessity of being injected. The possibility to deliver these complex molecules by the oral route would highly increase their therapeutic value. However, the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) has several biological barriers that make the administration of peptides a very important challenge. The objective of this thesis has been to design and develop polymer-based peptide nanocarriers with the potential to overcome the low stability and poor intestinal permeability of these fragile macromolecules. Beyond this ambitious objective, this thesis is expected to significantly contribute to the understanding of the processes involved in the interaction of the nanostructures with the GIT barriers.