Marine Peptides
A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2010) | Viewed by 22405
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
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 31st 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
Keywords
- peptidic natural products
- ribosomally-expressed
- enzymatically-produced
- cone snails
- sea anemones
- sponges
- structure-activity
- bioactivity
- structural determination
- bioavailability
- peptide synthesis
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