Peptide dendrimers comprising fibrinogen-binding peptides

Abstract

Peptide dendrimers and agents are described, which can be used for polymerising fibrinogen and as haemostatic agents. The peptide dendrimers comprise a branched core, and a plurality of fibrinogen-binding peptides separately covalently attached to the branched core. The branched core comprises: i) from two to ten multi-functional amino acid residues, wherein each fibrinogen-binding peptide is separately covalently attached to a multi-functional amino acid residue of the branched core; il) a plurality of multi-functional amino acid residues, wherein one or more fibrinogen-binding peptides are separately covalently attached to each of at least two adjacent multi-functional amino acid residues of the branched core; Hi) a plurality of multi-functional amino acid residues, wherein two or more fibrinogen-binding peptides are separately covalently attached to at least one of the multi-functional amino acid residues of the branched core; iv) a plurality of multi-functional amino acid residues, wherein two or more multi-functional amino acid residues are covalently linked through a side chain of an adjacent multi-functional amino acid residue; or y) a single multi-functional amino acid residue, and a fibrinogen-binding peptide is separately covalently attached to each functional group of the multi-functional amino acid residue, The. multi-functional amino acid residues comprise tri- or tetra-functional amino acid residues, or tri- and tetra-functional amino acid residues, or the single multi-functional amino acid residue is a tri- or tetra-functional amino acid residue.