Special Issue "Marine Peptides"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Frank Mari
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA
Website: http://www.science.fau.edu/chemistry/2008faculty/2009mari.htm
E-Mail:

Dear Colleagues,

The marine environment is a vast source of natural products. The biodiversity found in the oceans is remarkable and it has only begun to be explored recently, when compared with terrestrial habitats. The molecular variety associated with this biodiversity represents a challenge for drug discovery. Nevertheless, screening and pharmacological evaluation of marine natural products as potential drug leads has taken a giant leap in the past two decades. As a result, the first drug of marine origin has obtained approval by the FDA on December 31^st 2004. Prialt, a peptide (an ω-conotoxin) isolated from a cone snail (Conus magus), has been approved for the treatment of chronic pain as a morphine replacement therapy and it is the most powerful painkiller known to date. This landmark event is evidence that a new wave of “Drugs from the Sea” with novel pharmacologies for the treatment of an array of diseases and conditions is on its way. This issue of Marine Drugs is dedicated to “Marine Peptides”. Whether these compounds are ribosomally-expressed, such as the conotoxins and sea anemone toxins, or enzymatically-produced peptides, they are of great interest as drug leads and for drug development. We hope that the manuscripts here included will cover several aspects of recent developments within the field.

Prof. Dr. Frank Mari
Guest Editor

Submission

All manuscripts should be submitted to marinedrugs@mdpi.org with a copy to the Guest Editor. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Marine Drugs is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this Open Access journal is 1400 CHF per accepted paper.

• peptidic natural products
• ribosomally-expressed
• enzymatically-produced
• cone snails
• sea anemones
• sponges
• structure-activity
• bioactivity
• structural determination
• bioavailability
• peptide synthesis

Type of Paper: Review
Title: Discovery and Development of Chi-Conopeptides for Pain
Author: Richard Lewis
Affiliation: The Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St Lucia 4072, Queensland, Australia; E-Mail: r.lewis@uq.edu.au
Abstract: to be added

Type of Paper: Review
Title: Marine Antimicrobial Peptides
Author: Morgane Henry
Affiliation: Department of Fish Nutrition and Pathology, Institute of Aquaculture, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Aghios Kosmas, Elliniko 16604, Greece; E-Mail: morgane@ath.hcmr.gr
Abstract: Endogenous antimicrobial peptides (<100 amino acid) are part of the innate immune system of animals. They have a broad spectrum activity against bacteria, fungi, protozoa, viruses and tumour cells and may also enhance immunity. Although they were first discovered in Bacillus brevis in 1939, hundreds of antibacterial peptides have since been discovered in numerous species of both the plant and the animal kingdom. In the marine environment, such peptides have been described in arthropods, molluscs, sharks, lampreys and teleostei. The present review will discuss such marine antimicrobial peptides, their source, their structure and properties, their antimicrobial spectrum, their potential mode of action.

Type of Paper: Review
Title: The Unique Anti-Cancer Activities of Pro-IGF-I E-Peptide from Fish and Human and its Potential Application in Cancer Therapy
Authors: Thomas T. Chen and Maria Chen
Affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269
AbstractE-peptide of the pro-Insulin-like growth factor-I (pro-IGF-I) is produced from pre-pro-IGF-I by proteolytic cleavage in the post-translational processing. Studies conducted in our laboratory showed that E-peptide of rainbow trout (rtEa4) or human (hEb) of pro-IGF-I exhibited novel activities including (i) induction of morphological differentiation, (ii) inhibition of anchorage-independent cell growth, (iii) suppression of invasion, (iv) inhibition of angiogenesis, and (v) induction of apoptosis in various human cancer cells such as breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231), colon cancer cells (HT-29), prostate cancer cells (PC-3), ovarian cancer cells (OVCAR-&), neuroblastoma cells (SK-N-F1), hepatoma cells (HepG-2) and small lung cancer cells (NCI-H526). Results of microarray analysis of human gene chips and confirmation by comparative real-time RT-PCR analysis showed that genes related to cancer cell activities are up- or down-regulated by rtEa4- or hEb-peptide. These results suggest that rtEa4- or hEb-peptide could be developed as therapeutics for treating human cancers.