Pharmacology

Lipidation

Attaching a fatty-acid chain to a peptide to enable albumin binding and long half-life.

Definition

Lipidation is the dominant half-life extension strategy for approved GLP-1 peptides. Liraglutide (C16 palmitoyl) and semaglutide (C18 fatty diacid) both exploit albumin binding to slow renal clearance from minutes to days.

Related terms

Back to the full peptide glossary.