Biological Applications of Elastin Like Polypeptides and the Inverse Transition Cycle in the Pharmaceutical Industry- A Review

Abstract

Proteins are essential throughout of the biological and biomedical sciences and the purification strategies of proteins of interest have advanced over centuries. Elastin Like Polypeptides (ELPs) are large molecular and stimulus-responsive biopolymers derived from human elastin. Recent research has identified the various applications of ELPs as nanomedicines and Inverse Transition Cycle (ITC) are far from being completely understood. This review provides a comprehensive idea about applications of ELPs and ITC. ITC is considered an inexpensive and efficient way of purifying recombinant ELP fusion proteins. ELPs have been used extensively for protein purification, tissue engineering, and drug delivery in a variety of different embodiments as soluble macromolecular carriers, self-assembled nanoparticles, or thermally coacervated depots. This review focuses on recent advances in understanding valuable the biological application of ELPs and briefly highlights on the possible use of technologies to improve the efficiency of the ITC in the pharmaceutical industry to obtain benefit.