Pharmacology
Half-Life
Definition
In pharmacology, half-life is the time required for the concentration of a substance in the body to decrease by 50%. For peptides, half-lives are generally short (minutes to hours) due to rapid enzymatic degradation by proteases. Understanding a peptide's half-life is essential for research protocol design, as it determines dosing frequency and timing of measurements. Modifications such as PEGylation or cyclization can extend peptide half-lives.