Cyclic Peptides

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, considerable efforts have been devoted to the isolation, characterization and synthesis of peptide macrocycles. Natural compounds and synthetic analogues have found applications that range from therapeutics to bionanomaterials. This is due to their functional and structural properties, good bioavailability and enzymatic stability, when compared to their linear counterparts. From a therapeutic point of view, though cyclopeptides show a wide range of biological activities (anti-cancer, cytotoxic, antimicrobial, anthelmintic, anti-HIV and anti-insecticidal), to date few mechanisms of action and molecular receptors are known. This explains the growing interest of academia and pharmaceutical companies for peptide-based macrocycles. Considering that isolation from natural sources is expensive and time consuming, synthetic organic chemistry plays a crucial role for the preparation of these macrocyclic targets. However, the presence of unusual amino acids, heterocyclic building blocks and ester linkages still represent a challenge for synthetic chemists (as much as the macrocyclization step itself). The present Special Issue is aimed at covering recent isolated cyclopeptides, new synthetic strategies, as well as novel applications in different areas of this intriguing class of compounds, being that the research on macrocycles is promising, exciting and still underexplored.

Prof. Irene  Izzo
Guest Editor

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