Peptides are fragments of proteins that carry out biological functions. They act as signaling entities via all domains of life and interfere with protein-protein interactions, which are indispensable in bio-processes. Short peptides include fundamental molecular information for a prelude to the symphony of life. They have aroused considerable interest due to their unique features and great promise in innovative bio-therapies. This work focusing on the current state-of-the-art short peptide-based therapeutical developments is the first global review written by researchers from all continents, as a celebration of 100 years of peptide therapeutics since the commencement of insulin therapy in the 1920s. Peptide “drugs” initially played only the role of hormone analogs to balance disorders. Nowadays, they achieve numerous biomedical tasks, can cross membranes, or reach intracellular targets. The role of peptides in bio-processes can hardly be mimicked by other chemical substances. The article is divided into independent sections, which are related to either the progress in short peptide-based theranostics or the problems posing challenge to bio-medicine. In particular, the SWOT analysis of short peptides, their relevance in therapies of diverse diseases, improvements in (bio)synthesis platforms, advanced nano-supramolecular technologies, aptamers, altered peptide ligands and in silico methodologies to overcome peptide limitations, modern smart bio-functional materials, vaccines, and drug/gene-targeted delivery systems are discussed.

The presence of multiple a,a-dialkyl amino acids such as a-methylalanine (a-aminoisobutyric acid, Aib) leads to predominantly helical structures, either with a-helical or 310-helical hydrogen bonding patterns. The crystal structure of emerimicin-(1-9) benzyl ester (Ac-Phe-Aib-Aib-AibVal-Gly-Leu-Aib-Aib-OBzl) reported here shows essentially pure a-helical character, whereas other similar compounds show predominantly 310-helical structures. The factors that govern helical preference include the inherent relative stability of the a-helix compared with the 310-helix, the extra hydrogen bond seen with 310-helices, and the enhanced electrostatic dipolar interaction of the 310-helix when packed in a crystalline lattice. The balance of these forces, when combined with the steric requirements of the amino acid side chains, determines the relative stability of the two helical conformations under a given set of experimental conditions. The presence of a,a-dialkyl amino acids in microbial natural products, such as the peptaibol antibiotics, requires novel biosynthetic pathways to produce and incorporate these unusual amino acids in the face of the usual ribosomal mechanisms available for normal amino acids. This argues strongly for a special role related to function, one aspect of which may be their increased resistance to proteolytic degradation. Another aspect is the conformational restrictions imposed by these amino acids as first pointed out by Marshall and Bosshard (1, 2) and verified by others (3-7). While most work has focused on a-methylalanine (a-aminoisobutyric acid, Aib), a-ethylalanine (isovaline) has also been found to be a natural component of several peptaibol antibiotics (8,9). In addition, chiral a,a-dialkyl amino acids, such as amethylphenylalanine, have been incorporated into naturally occurring peptides in an effort to restrict their conformational freedom (10, 11).From the Ramachandran plots published by Marshall and Bosshard in 1972 (1), the presence of an additional alkyl substituent on the a-carbon severely restricted the values of the torsional variables 4 and qk as compared with those available to normal amino acids. While the two major allowed conformational areas were associated with either right-or left-handed helical conformations (both a and 310), the calculation also revealed other sets of energetically feasible values for 4 and q, adjacent to the a,a-dialkyl residue associated with extended structures as well as turns. The effect on conformation of alkyl groups larger than methyl as substituents in a,a-dialkyl amino acids has also been investigated (11,12). Despite the variety of conformations theoretically available to a,a-dialkyl amino acids, the impact of multiple substitutions ofthis type of amino acid on the overall conformation of a peptide is dramatic. The crystal structure of alamethicin (13), which contains 8 Aib residues out of 20, is predominantly a-helical, with NMR data (14) supporting a similar solution conformation in methanol. A review (15) of crystal structures of tr...

Assessment of the conformational implications of chemical modification is an important aspect of analogue design. A new procedure, the assessment of conformational mimicry, which determines the percentage of sterically accessible conformations for the parent compound also available to the analogue, is used to show that 88% of the conformers allowed for the cis amide bond are also available to peptides in which the amide bond is replaced by a 1,5-disubstituted tetrazole ring that locks the amide bond in the cis conformer. This analysis was made possible by the crystal structure of a cyclic dipeptide, cyclo[l-Phe-i/'(CN4)-L-Ala], determined in this paper. The crystals of the diketopiperazine analogue are monoclinic, space group P2\/c, with cell parameters a = 11.677 (1), b = 7.742 (1), c = 13.086 (1) A; /? = 93.39 (1)°; Z = 4; and = 1.368 g cm-3. The tetrazole ring system is planar with all five torsional angles equal to 0°. The diketopiperazine ring system is nearly planar, and the phenylalanine ring adopts the flagpole orientation over the cyclic dipeptide. A procedure for the preparation of this class of peptide analogues by synthetic routes avoiding racemization of the amino acids of the starting dipeptide is demonstrated. The tetrazole ring provides, therefore, a synthetic probe for the role of cis-trans isomerism of A'-alkylamide bonds, such as that of proline, in molecular recognition.Replacement of the amide bond by surrogates to enhance metabolic stability and/or probe receptor specificity has become an increasingly important topic of research1 as the central biological role of peptides as chemical effectors becomes more understood. Proline occupies a special role among those amino acids

The dormant state known as diapause is widely exploited by insects to circumvent winter and other adverse seasons. For an insect to survive, feed, and reproduce at the appropriate time of year requires fine coordination of the timing of entry into and exit from diapause. One of the hormones that regulates diapause in moths is the 24-aa neuropeptide, diapause hormone (DH). Among members of the Helicoverpa/Heliothis complex of agricultural pests, DH prompts the termination of pupal diapause. Based on the structure of DH, we designed several agonists that are much more active than DH in breaking diapause. One such agonist that we describe also prevents the entry into pupal diapause when administered to larvae that are environmentally programmed for diapause. In addition, we used the unique antagonist development strategy of incorporating a dihydroimidazole ("Jones") trans-Proline mimetic motif into one of our DH agonists, thereby converting the agonist into a DH antagonist that blocks the termination of diapause. These results suggest potential for using such agents or next-generation derivatives for derailing the success of overwintering in pest species.diapause manipulation | peptidomimetics C oordinating active phases of the life cycle with seasons that provide food resources and suitable environmental conditions is crucial for sustaining viable insect populations. Major portions of the year, most notably winters in temperate zones, are unsuitable for continuous development, and most insects have evolved periods of dormancy (diapause), characterized by suppressed metabolism and bolstered stress responses that enhance survival during unfavorable seasons. Short day lengths of late summer commonly trigger the onset of diapause (1, 2), and these environmental signals prompt endocrine responses that directly initiate and eventually terminate the diapause state (3).Desynchronizing an insect pest with its appropriate seasonal diapause could be used as a tool for disrupting pest populations (4). Altering the timing of diapause has the potential to evoke ecological suicide if the insect is forced to be active during a time of year when climatic conditions are adverse or food resources are absent. Blocking entry into diapause in the autumn, breaking out of an overwintering diapause prematurely, or failing to terminate diapause at the appropriate time in the spring all have potential for desynchronizing the temporal distribution of insects. We report here the development of unique agents capable of disrupting the overwintering pupal diapause of the corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea, a member of the Heliothis/Helicoverpa complex, a worldwide group of noteworthy crop pests (5).Our target is diapause hormone (DH). This 24-aa neuropeptide, a pyrokinin in the DH-pheromone biosynthesis activating neuropeptide (PBAN) family, is best known for its action in initiating embryonic diapause in the commercial silkworm, Bombyx mori (6); however, recently, DH was also shown to exert an opposite effect in pupae of the Heliothis/Helicoverpa co...