A Comprehensive Review of Patented Antimicrobial Peptides from Amphibian Anurans

Abstract

Since the 1980s, studies of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) derived from anuran skin secretions have unveiled remarkable structural diversity and a wide range of activities. This study explores the potential of these peptides for drug development by examining granted patents, amino acid modifications related to patented peptides, and recent amphibians' taxonomic updates influencing AMP names. A total of 188 granted patents related to different anuran peptides were found, with Asia and North America being the predominant regions, contributing 65.4% and 15.4%, respectively. Conversely, although the Neotropical region is the world's most diversified region for amphibians, it holds only 3.7% of the identified patents. The antimicrobial activities of the peptides are claimed in 118 of these 188 patents. Additionally, for 160 of these peptides, 66 patents were registered for the natural sequence, 69 for both natural and derivative sequences, and 20 exclusively for sequence derivatives. Notably, common modifications include alterations in the side chains of amino acids and modifications to the peptides' N-and C-termini. This review underscores the biomedical potential of anuran-derived AMPs, emphasizing the need to bridge the gap between AMP description and practical drug development while highlighting the urgency of biodiversity conservation to facilitate biomedical discoveries.

First Report of Ocellatin-VT from the Skin Secretion of Leptodactylus vastus Lutz (Amphibia: Leptodactylidae)

“…AMPs from anurans have been studied for the last four decades, and interest in them has increased with the global health emergency of antimicrobial resistance. It has been shown that anuran AMPs are targets of patents that propose their development as new drugs, including through bioengineering involving amino acid modifications [20]. In this…”

“…AMPs from anurans have been studied for the last four decades, and interest in them has increased with the global health emergency of antimicrobial resistance. It has been shown that anuran AMPs are targets of patents that propose their development as new drugs, including through bioengineering involving amino acid modifications [20]. In this work, we performed the fractionation of skin secretion from L. vastus (LSV) from the Brazilian northeast and ended up isolating a new peptide belonging to the group of ocellatins.…”

First Bioprospecting Study of Skin Host-Defense Peptides in Odontophrynus americanus

“…Since the pioneering studies by the Erspamer group, it has been well-established that anuran skin secretion harbors a diverse array of compounds, exhibiting a wide spectrum of biological activity. − Among these compounds are host defense peptides (HDPs), known for their capability to inhibit bacterial growth and demonstrating remarkable diversity in their bioactivity spectrum against a wide range of microorganisms. − These molecules hold significant potential for drug development. , …”