Synthetic peptides have become invaluable biomedical research and medicinal chemistry tools for studying functional roles, i.e., binding or proteolytic activity, naturally-occurring regions' immunogenicity in proteins and developing therapeutic agents and vaccines. Synthetic peptides can mimic protein sites; their structure and function can be easily modulated by specific amino acid replacement...

ERAP-1 (endoplasmic-reticulum aminopeptidase-1) is a multifunctional enzyme with roles in the regulation of blood pressure, angiogenesis and the presentation of antigens to MHC class I molecules. Whereas the enzyme shows restricted specificity toward synthetic substrates, its substrate specificity toward natural peptides is rather broad. Because of the pathophysiological significance of ERAP-1,...

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) constitute promising candidates for the development of new antibiotics. Among the ever-expanding family of AMPs, tritrpticin has strong antimicrobial activity against a broad range of pathogens. This 13-residue peptide has an unusual amino acid sequence that is almost symmetrical and features three central Trp residues with two Arg residues near each end of the pep...

Peptide arrays are increasingly used to define antibody epitopes and substrate specificities of protein kinases. Their use is hampered, however, by ineffective and variable binding efficiency of peptides, which often results in low sensitivity and inconsistent results. To overcome these limitations, we have developed a novel method for making arrays of synthetic peptides on various membranes af...

Immunization of mice with a synthetic peptide that corresponds to a murine antibody-defined immunodominant domain of herpes simplex virus (HSV) glycoprotein D (gD) induced neutralizing antibodies against HSV types 1 and 2 and protected animals against a lethal challenge with HSV type 2 (Dietzschold, B., Eisenberg, R., Ponce de Leon, M., Golub, E., Hudecz, F., Varicchio, A. & Cohen, G. (1984) J....

To date, only a limited number of antigens have been described as specific for Mycobacterium leprae, and in many cases, homologues have subsequently been shown to exist in mycobacteria such as M. avium and M. intracellulare. A Leprosy Synthetic Peptide Skin Test Initiative was established by the Steering Committee on the Immunology of Mycobacteria of the UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme fo...

BACKGROUND Different clonal types of Toxoplasma gondii are thought to be associated with distinct clinical manifestations of infections. Serotyping is a novel technique which may allow to determine the clonal type of T. gondii humans are infected with and to extend typing studies to larger populations which include infected but non-diseased individuals. METHODOLOGY A peptide-microarray test f...

Natural regulatory peptides are biologically active compounds that are produced by various cells and provide a link among the main regulatory systems of the body. The field of research into the biologic activity of endogenous regulatory peptides is extremely vast. These peptides affect the cardiovascular, immune, reproductive, endocrine, digestive, and other systems, alter energy metabolism, an...

Three peptides corresponding to fragments of diphtheria toxin have been synthesized. They include the previously described tetradecapeptide and two structural analogs, the hexadecapeptide and the octadecapeptide. Conjugates of these peptides to proteins or a synthetic carrier have induced in guinea pig protection against the dermonecrotic activity of diphtheria toxin. All of the conjugates were...

The United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) Therapeutic Peptides Expert Panel was formed in 2013 to evaluate quality attributes for synthetic peptides based on currently available regulatory guidance and expectations. Public quality standards for drug products and drug substances are developed by USP and enforceable by FDA. This series of three articles by the Panel explores the current ma...