The rising number of multidrug-resistant microorganisms has triggered interest in the prospection of biocompounds with antimicrobial activities. Synoeca-MP consists of an antimicrobial peptide (AMP) classified as a mastoparan, which was isolated from the venom of Synoeca surinama, a social wasp. Synoeca-MP presented a potent antimicrobial activity, with values of MIC 50 and MIC 90 against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus-MRSA (1.9 and 2.2 μM), Escherichia coli ESBL (2.0 and 2,1 μM), vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis (8.3 and 17.1 μM), Pseudomonas aeruginosa metallo-ß-lactamase (5.2 and 5.9 μM), and Klebsiella pneumoniae KPC (3.5 and 4.7 μM). Synoeca-MP was also tested against six Candida species, with MICs varying from 10 to 40 μM. Moreover, the structural prediction for Synoeca-MP demonstrated a cationic α-helix capable of interacting with in silico membranes and low hemolytic activity. Due to its antimicrobial activity, synoeca-MP shows potential as an adjuvant to antibiotics and antifungals commonly used in antibiotic therapies. K E Y W O R D S antimicrobial peptides, pathogenic microorganisms, Synoeca surinama
The constant demand for new antibiotic drugs has driven efforts by the scientific community to prospect for peptides with a broad spectrum of action. In this context, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have acquired great scientific importance in recent years due to their ability to possess antimicrobial and immunomodulatory activity. In the last two decades, plants have attracted the interest o f the scientific community and industry as regards their potential as biofactories of heterologous proteins. One of the most promising approaches is the use of viral vectors to maximize the transient expression of drugs in the leaves of the plant Nicotiana benthamiana. recently, the MagnifectionTM expression system was launched. This sophisticated commercial platform allows the assembly of the viral particle in leaf cells and the systemic spread of heterologous protein biosynthesis in green tissues caused by Agrobacterium tumefaciens "gene delivery method". The system also presents increased gene expression levels mediated by potent viral expression machinery. These characteristics allow the mass recovery of heterologous proteins in the leaves of N. benthamiana in 8 to 10 days. This system was highly efficient for the synthesis of different classes of pharmacological proteins and contains enormous potential for the rapid and abundant biosynthesis of AMPs.
The elucidation of the 3D structure of DNA revolutionized modern science and created the basis for the field of molecular biology. The advent of DNA sequencing, and further refinement with Next‐Generation Sequencing (NGS) techniques, has made possible the enormous accumulation of data, which are useful for understanding the molecular mechanisms associated to various complex and rare diseases. Thanks to these advances, today it is known that several mechanisms regulate gene expression without the occurrence of mutations in the genome, a phenomenom known as Epigenetics and Epigenomics. The main mechanisms involved are DNA methylation, histone modifications, and non‐coding RNA transcription. The knowledge of these mechanisms applied to biomedicine has enabled the emergence of several fields, especially precision medicine, which is based on the genetic and epigenetic profiles of patients applied to personalized diagnostics and treatments. In this review, the history of the scientific advances that have enabled the development of precision medicine will be discussed, with a focus in epigenetics. Moreover, several molecules that have been approved for use or have the potential in epigenetic therapies (epidrugs) will also be discussed here, those of which act on targets responsible for maintaining the correct epigenetic pattern or correcting wrong patterns in diseases.
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