Peptidomimetic approach of cyclic peptides (orbitides) obtained from Jatropha Brazilian species

• Grant number: 16/13148-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: February 01, 2017
• End date: November 30, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Organic Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Vanderlan da Silva Bolzani
• Grantee: Suelem Demuner Ramalho
• Supervisor: David Craik
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Queensland, Brisbane (UQ), Australia
• Associated to the scholarship: 15/09533-7 - Cyclopeptides of Extreme Environments Plants (Caatinga Biome): Characterization, Function, Synthesis and Evaluation of Anti-tumor and Immunosuppressive Activities, BP.PD

Abstract

Peptides play an important role in several cellular processes in living organisms, including plants. Cyclic peptides (orbitides) consist in a new class of compounds recently investigated for natural products, and still little explored in Brazil. It is also known that the presence of these substances are restricted to certains groups of taxa. Thus, the investigation of this class of compounds can help to understand the function of cyclic peptides, currently of great relevance for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, being a source of new molecular models for bioprospection research in Brazil. The peptidomimetic approach is a strategy to obtain a collection of bioactive peptides analogues. The activity of peptides relates to their composition, amino acid sequence and spatial arrangement. Usually, the modifications involve changes in the backbones of the peptides that will not occur naturally. This can have a role in the development of drug-like compounds from known peptides. The research line on peptides in NuBBE is recent, and the obtained data will contribute to the search for new peptides, which are involved in the development of bioproducts and present a great potential to obtain innovative products. In this study, we aim to synthesize a selection of peptides analogues mimicking naturally occurring compounds (orbitides) from Jatropha Brazilian species, using solid-phase method based on linear, inverso, retro and retro-reverso strategies. The obtained peptides will be investigated for drug design. Thus, to develop this research abroad cooperation was established with Professor Dr. David J. Craik at The Institute for Molecular Biosience, The University of Queensland-Australia, which is one of the major researchers in the area of circular proteins from plants worldwide.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

RAMALHO, SUELEM D.; WANG, CONAN K.; KING, GORDON J.; BYRIEL, KARL A.; HUANG, YEN-HUA; BOLZANI, VANDERLAN S.; CRAIK, DAVID J.. Synthesis, Racemic X-ray Crystallographic, and Permeability Studies of Bioactive Orbitides from Jatropha Species. Journal of Natural Products, v. 81, n. 11, p. 2436-2445, NOV 2018. (16/13148-4)