Peptide Design Enables Reengineering of an Inactive Wasp Venom Peptide into Synthetic Antiplasmodial Agents

Author(s)

Torres, Marcelo D. T. ^{[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]} ; Silva, Adriana F. ^[1] ; Pedron, Cibele N. ^[1] ; Capurro, Margareth L. ^[8] ; de la Fuente-Nunez, Cesar ^{[2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]} ; Oliveira Junior, Vani X. ^[1]

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Fed ABC, Ctr Ciencias Nat & Humanas, Santo Andre, SP - Brazil

^[2] Broad Inst MIT & Harvard, Cambridge, MA - USA

^[3] MIT, Dept Biol Engn, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139 - USA

^[4] MIT, Dept Elect Engn & Comp Sci, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139 - USA

^[5] Synthet Biol Grp, Cambridge, MA - USA

^[6] Res Lab Elect, Belmont, MA - USA

^[7] Ctr Microbiome Informat & Therapeut, Cambridge, MA - USA

^[8] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Ciencias Biomed 2, Sao Paulo - Brazil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: CHEMISTRYSELECT; v. 3, n. 21, p. 5859-5863, JUN 7 2018.
• Web of Science Citations: 4

Abstract

Malaria, caused by Plasmodium protozoa, is responsible for approximate to 0.5 million deaths annually. Decoralin is a wasp-derived peptide with activity against a number of microorganisms but no antiplasmodial function. In its unmodified form, it cannot be used as an anti-infective because of its hemolytic activity. We have generated decoralin analogs with potent antiplasmodial function. Our results provide insight into antiplasmodial sequence requirements and identify single mutations that confer novel biological and therapeutic properties to this peptide, demonstrating the utility of rational peptide design. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 14/04507-5 - Biological applications of new antimicrobial peptides
• Grantee: Marcelo Der Torossian Torres
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 14/12938-6 - Biologically active peptides against pathogenic micro-organisms
• Grantee: Vani Xavier de Oliveira Junior
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants