Peptides with Dual Antimicrobial–Anticancer Activity: Strategies to Overcome Peptide Limitations and Rational Design of Anticancer Peptides

Abstract

Peptides are naturally produced by all organisms and exhibit a wide range of physiological, immunomodulatory, and wound healing functions. Furthermore, they can provide with protection against microorganisms and tumor cells. Their multifaceted performance, high selectivity, and reduced toxicity have positioned them as effective therapeutic agents, representing a positive economic impact for pharmaceutical companies. Currently, efforts have been made to invest in the development of new peptides with antimicrobial and anticancer properties, but the poor stability of these molecules in physiological environments has triggered a bottleneck. Therefore, some tools, such as nanotechnology and in silico approaches can be applied as alternatives to try to overcome these obstacles. In silico studies provide a priori knowledge that can lead to the development of new anticancer peptides with enhanced biological activity and improved stability. This review focuses on the current status of research in peptides with dual antimicrobial–anticancer activity, including advances in computational biology using in silico analyses as a powerful tool for the study and rational design of these types of peptides.

Synthesis and Characterization of Radiogallium-Labeled Cationic Amphiphilic Peptides as Tumor Imaging Agents

“…Several CAPs, such as SVS-1 (KV6), possess the ability to preferentially kill cancerous cells [ 8 , 39 ]. SVS-1 only folds at the surface of cancer cells to acquire a β-hairpin structure that allows for the preferential disruption of the cancer cell membrane [ 12 , 16 , 17 ].…”

Prediction of Anticancer Peptides with High Efficacy and Low Toxicity by Hybrid Model Based on 3D Structure of Peptides

“…However, cancer treatment continues to face the challenge of increasing resistance to chemical and receptor-targeted anticancer drugs. Researchers identified a class of bioactive peptides with antitumor activity, named anticancer peptides (ACPs), which are found in a wide range of organisms, including mammals, amphibians, insects, plants and microorganisms [ 3 ]. As a new potential drug for cancer treatment, ACPs are cationic amphiphilic peptides with a length of about 5–50 amino acids, which are characterized by a simple structure, easily synthesized, easily modified chemically and less immunogenic [ 4 ].…”

In Silico Selection and Evaluation of Pugnins with Antibacterial and Anticancer Activity Using Skin Transcriptome of Treefrog (Boana pugnax)

“…Additionally, the resistance and low selectivity of anticancer drugs led to an increase in the pace and scope of research aimed at developing new drugs of both types [4]. Among the new molecules being researched to treat cancer and infections are peptides, characterized mainly by reduced adverse effects that evoke resistance in bacteria less often than conventional antibiotics and may also have multiple activities, such as bactericidal, hemolytic, antifungal, antiviral, healing, immunomodulating, and destroying tumor cells [5][6][7]. The relevance of bioprospecting these molecules, specifically peptides with combined antibacterial-anticancer activity (ABC), is focused on the skin of amphibians that are widely distributed throughout the planet, adapting to a variety of climates, terrains, and predators [8][9][10].…”

“…The ABC peptides could be a solution to the need to find new drugs to combat the resistance toward conventional antibiotics and anticancer drugs [7,19]. Hence, they present other characteristics that give advantages to its use, mainly: reduced adverse effects, potent activity, and broad-spectrum activity like the antibacterial-anticancer effect [20].…”

“…However, one of the big problems with ABC peptides is cytotoxicity in normal eukaryotic cells [24]. Therefore, physicochemical properties, such as net charge, hydrophobicity percentage, hydrophobic momentum, and aggregation, become indicator tools for the design of peptides with potent ABC activity and low cytotoxicity against eukaryotic cells [7,25,26].…”