Bioactive Peptides from Natural Sources: Pharmacological Effects, Recombinant Expression, Modification, Molecular Mechanisms, and Therapeutic Potential
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Bioactives and Nutraceuticals".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 93
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Peptides from plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and other biological resources constitute a rapidly expanding class of bioactive molecules at the interface of natural product chemistry, molecular pharmacology, and translational medicine. Recent advances in genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metagenomics, structural biology, and peptide engineering have greatly accelerated the discovery of functional peptides, including host-defense peptides, cyclotides, defensins, venom peptides, orbitides, signaling peptides, and ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides. These molecules exhibit diverse pharmacological activities, such as antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, immunomodulatory, antitumor, metabolic regulatory, neuroprotective, and wound-healing effects. Their compact size, sequence plasticity, target selectivity, and, in many cases, exceptional structural stability make them attractive leads for drug discovery and functional health applications.
This Special Issue welcomes original research articles and reviews on the discovery, biosynthesis, molecular evolution, pharmacological functions, and translational applications of bioactive and functional peptides from diverse natural sources. Topics of interest include multi-omics-guided peptide discovery, comparative analysis of peptide precursor gene families, phylogenetic and evolutionary studies, microbial and fungal peptide biosynthesis, animal venom and host-defense peptides, structure–activity relationships, molecular targets and mechanisms of action, peptide engineering and delivery, and preclinical evaluation for therapeutic or health-promoting use.
Scope
- Discovery, isolation, characterization, and bioactivity evaluation of functional peptides from plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, marine organisms, foods, and other natural sources.
- Genome mining, transcriptome mining, metagenomics, peptidomics, and other multi-omics strategies for identifying novel peptide precursors and mature peptides.
- Peptide precursor genes, gene families, duplication and diversification, comparative genomics, and phylogenetic analysis across taxa.
- Biosynthesis, post-translational modifications, and maturation mechanisms of cyclotides, defensins, venom peptides, orbitides, and signaling peptides.
- Structural biology, peptide folding, stability, cyclization, and structure–activity relationships.
- Pharmacological activities, including antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antitumor, immunomodulatory, metabolic, neuroprotective, analgesic, and wound-healing effects.
- Molecular targets, signaling pathways, receptor interactions, and mechanisms of action.
- Peptide engineering, synthetic biology, delivery systems, formulation, oral bioavailability, and translational development.
- Safety, pharmacokinetics, toxicity, and preclinical or functional validation in cellular and animal models.
Dr. Linchun Shi
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- bioactive peptides
- functional peptides
- antimicrobial peptides
- host-defense peptides
- venom peptides
- ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides
- peptide precursor gene families
- comparative genomics
- phylogeny
- structure–activity relationship
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