Natural Cyclic Peptides as an Attractive Modality for Therapeutics: A Mini Review

Abstract

Peptides are important biomolecules which facilitate the understanding of complex biological processes, which in turn could be serendipitous biological targets for future drugs. They are classified as a unique therapeutic niche and will play an important role as fascinating agents in the pharmaceutical landscape. Until now, more than 40 cyclic peptide drugs are currently in the market, and approximately one new cyclopeptide drug enters the market annually on average. Interestingly, the majority of clinically approved cyclic peptides are derived from natural sources, such as peptide antibiotics and human peptide hormones. In this report, the importance of cyclic peptides is discussed, and their role in drug discovery as interesting therapeutic biomolecules will be highlighted. Recently isolated naturally occurring cyclic peptides from microorganisms, sponges, and other sources with a wide range of pharmacological properties are reviewed herein.

Cytotoxic Activities and Molecular Mechanisms of the Beauvericin and Beauvericin G1 Microbial Products against Melanoma Cells

“…Despite the diversity of therapeutic options available for melanoma, the high resistance of cancer cells to conventional treatments necessitates the search for new anticancer agents with greater efficacy [20,21]. Many natural cyclic peptides have shown potent cytotoxicity against cancer cell lines and excellent potential as cancer therapeutic agents [22]. In order to find effective natural compounds to treat melanoma, we investigated the cytotoxic effects in A375SM cells and the underlying molecular mechanisms of BEA and BEA G 1 , which are two fungal cyclic hexadepsipeptides.…”

A gold mine for drug discovery: Strategies to develop cyclic peptides into therapies

“…It should come as no surprise that cyclic peptides show a wide range of biological activities, such as antibacterial, anticancer, antifungal, antiviral, and anti‐inflammatory properties. Statistically, more than one thousand cyclic peptides have been discovered in nature, and many of them have already been successfully developed into drugs. One of the oldest cyclic peptide drugs is gramicidin S, which is known for its effective antibacterial activity against Gram‐negative and Gram‐positive bacteria as well as some fungi .…”

Nanodiamond‐Based Platform for Intracellular‐Specific Delivery of Therapeutic Peptides against Hepatocellular Carcinoma

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] Various therapeutic applications of peptides include serving as hormones, inhibitors, drug carriers, and even anticancer agents. Delivery of therapeutic peptides to target cells continues to pose a challenge, particularly when these peptides target intracellular proteins.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] Various therapeutic applications of peptides include serving as hormones, inhibitors, drug carriers, and even anticancer agents. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Various therapeutic applications of peptides include serving as hormones, inhibitors, drug carriers, and even anticancer agents.…”

“…As such, nanodiamonds serve as a promising platform for stimuli-responsive intracellular-specific delivery of therapeutic peptides.Therapeutic peptides have been applied toward treating a wide range of diseases. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Various therapeutic applications of peptides include serving as hormones, inhibitors, drug carriers, and even anticancer agents. [1][2][3][4][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] However, hurdles toward clinical implementation for some peptides exist due to the intrinsic…”