Singapore Team Designs Peptide Droplets That Release Cargo When a Cancer-Linked Enzyme Cuts Them
Researchers at Nanyang Technological University reported in ACS Nano on October 20, 2026 that peptides which separate into liquid droplets, called coacervates, can carry cargo into cells and release it when cathepsin B, an enzyme often overactive in cancer cells, cuts them. Standard cathepsin B cut sites borrowed from drug linkers worked poorly inside the dense droplets, but a newly designed four-amino-acid motif, FRFV, was cut efficiently and released cargo in cancer cells. The work is in the lab.