PEGylated Thymosin β4 Is a Thiol-Site-Specific Prodrug Treating Myocardial Infarction In Vivo

    March 2026 in “ Bioengineering & Translational Medicine ”
    Haisheng Peng, Yanqun Chai, Chen Gong, Yue Hao, Yanbo Peng, Wenyuan Zhang, Xiaoying Liu, Shukun Tang, Qingfei Kong, Q. Wang
    TLDR PEGylated thymosin β4 shows promise for treating heart attacks effectively.
    PEGylated thymosin β4 (PEG‐rTβ4) has been developed as a prodrug to address the druggability challenges of thymosin beta 4 (Tβ4) for treating myocardial infarction (MI). The study utilized a modified prokaryotic expression system for producing recombinant Tβ4, followed by specific PEGylation. The resulting PEG‐rTβ4 demonstrated superior properties for MI treatment, including improved myocardial remodeling, cardiac function restoration, neoangiogenesis promotion, and apoptosis inhibition through the Akt/Bcl‐2/caspase‐3 pathway. This suggests that PEG‐rTβ4 is a promising candidate for further drug development.
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