Chemistry & stability

A simple peptide with a serious durability problem

DSIP’s chemistry is almost disappointingly plain: a short, linear chain of nine amino acids with no exotic features. Yet that very simplicity creates its biggest obstacle. The peptide is broken down rapidly in blood and tissue, and the antibody assays used to track it often cannot tell DSIP from look-alike fragments.

This unit covers the sequence, why it degrades so fast, the analog programs built to fix that, and the measurement problem that haunts the entire literature.