Contents
Special Issue Topic

Bioactive Peptides discovery and development

Submission Deadline: November 30, 2024

Guest Editor

Prof. Xuechen Li E-Mail

Professor of Department of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Research Keywords: synthetic protein; antibiotics; glycoconjugates; drug conjugates

About the Special lssue

Peptides have emerged as an exciting therapeutic modality with middle-sized molecular weights and pharmacological properties in between traditional small molecule drugs and therapeutic proteins. Many peptide drugs have been clinically used for various diseases, including antimicrobial peptides, supplementary peptide hormones, peptide-drug conjugates and so on. In addition, peptides hold great promise for disrupting protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and drug delivery.

The past decades have witnesses great advances in bioactive peptides discovery and development. For instance,  genome mining has led to many new ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs), various chemical methods have been developed to effectively cyclize peptides, peptide ligation allows for efficient synthesis of long peptides, super diverse peptide libraries provide powerful tools for high throughput screening and new knowledges have been gained for peptide intracellular delivery. 

This special issue calls for the submission in all aspect in peptides, including, but not limited to, new bioactive peptide discovery, biosynthesis, peptide synthesis, peptide delivery, cyclic peptides, peptide-drug conjugates, medicinal chemistry, etc.

Keywords: bioactive peptide, peptide synthesis, ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides, peptide conjugates, peptide delivery, peptide high throughput screening

Published Articles

Open Access Commentary
Recent exploration of γ-AApeptide based antimicrobial peptide mimics as potential therapeutics towards drug-resistant bacteria
Jarais Fontaine, Jianfeng Cai
Published: February 19, 2025 Explor Drug Sci. 2025;3:100888
383 18 0
Open Access Original Article
Bicyclic peptide-enhanced covalent inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease
Qian Wang ... Shiyu Chen
Published: October 17, 2024 Explor Drug Sci. 2024;2:719–733
1162 39 1
Open Access Review
Chemo-selective modification of cysteine residue: synthesis and application in the discovery of potential drug candidates
Yanyan Liao, Xuefeng Jiang
Published: September 06, 2024 Explor Drug Sci. 2024;2:540–554
1608 78 1
Open Access Perspective
Daropeptide natural products
Suze Ma ... Qi Zhang
Published: April 19, 2024 Explor Drug Sci. 2024;2:190–202
1692 66 2
Open Access Review
Stapled peptides: targeting protein-protein interactions in drug development
Qian Zhang ... Chunqiu Zhang
Published: April 18, 2024 Explor Drug Sci. 2024;2:154–189
4429 146 1
Open Access Review
Therapeutic proteins immunogenicity: a peptide point of view
Feliciana Real-Fernandez ... Paolo Rovero
Published: October 26, 2023 Explor Drug Sci. 2023;1:377–387
3730 119 6
Open Access Original Article
Late-stage diversification strategy for the synthesis of peptide acids and amides using hydrazides
Shoko Tanaka ... Kohei Sato
Published: October 09, 2023 Explor Drug Sci. 2023;1:322–335
2354 77 4
Open Access Original Article
A dextrorotatory residues-incorporated bioactive dodecapeptide against enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli
Ping Zeng ... Lanhua Yi
Published: June 30, 2023 Explor Drug Sci. 2023;1:210–220
1370 28 1
Open Access Review
Essential functions, syntheses and detection of sialyl Lewis X on glycoproteins
Qiushi Chen ... Xuechen Li
Published: February 28, 2023 Explor Drug Sci. 2023;1:31–54
5331 128 2