The Use Of Other Peptides

Antiviral peptide
Viruses adsorb cells by binding to specific receptors on host cells, relying on their own specific proteases for protein processing and nucleic acid replication. Therefore, peptides that bind to host cell receptors or active sites such as viral proteases can be screened from peptide libraries for antiviral therapy. In 2013, countries such as Canada and Italy have screened many small peptides with antiviral properties from peptide libraries, and some small peptides have entered the clinical trial stage. In June 2004, the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced that the important direction project of the Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, "Research on SARS Coronavirus Cell Fusion Mechanism and Fusion Inhibitor", which was undertaken by the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Modern Virology Research Center of the Academy of Life Sciences of Wuhan University, had made significant progress in cooperation. The experiment proved that the HR2 polypeptide designed by the Institute could effectively inhibit the infection of SARS virus on cultured cells, and the effective inhibitory concentration was several nanomoles. The virus infection inhibition experiment of the synthetic and expressed HR1 polypeptide and the in vitro binding experiment of HR1 and HR2 also made important progress. The polypeptide drug developed by the Institute to prevent SARS virus fusion could The prevention of virus infection can prevent the further expansion of the virus in the body for patients who have been infected with the virus. This peptide drug has dual functions of prevention and treatment. Researchers at the Cell Engineering Research Center of the Fourth Military Medical University have synthesized nine peptides that can effectively prevent and inhibit the invasion of SARS virus into cells. 

Cytokine mimetic peptides
The use of known cytokine receptors to screen cytokine mimetic peptides from peptide libraries has become a hot research topic both domestically and internationally in 2011. Several simulated peptides of growth factors, such as human erythropoietin, human thrombopoietin, human growth hormone, human nerve growth factor, and interleukin-1, have been screened abroad. The amino acid sequences of these simulated peptides are different from those of their corresponding cytokines, but they have cytokine activity and advantages such as low relative molecular weight. In 2013, these cytokine mimetic peptides were in the preclinical or clinical research stage. 

Antibacterial active peptides
When insects are stimulated by the external environment, they produce a large amount of cationic peptides with antibacterial activity. In 2013, more than a hundred antimicrobial peptides were screened from them. In vitro and in vivo experiments have confirmed that many antimicrobial peptides not only have strong antibacterial and bactericidal abilities, but also can kill tumor cells. 

Peptide vaccine
Peptide vaccines and nucleic acid vaccines were one of the more important research areas in the field of vaccine research in 2013. In 2013, a large amount of research and development on viral peptide vaccines were carried out worldwide. In 1999, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States released the clinical trial results of two HIV-I virus peptide vaccines on humans; Foreign scholars have screened a peptide from the outer membrane protein E2 of hepatitis C virus (HCV), which can stimulate the body to produce protective antibodies; The United States is developing a multivalent antigen peptide vaccine for malaria; The cervical cancer human papillomavirus peptide vaccine has entered phase II clinical trials. China has also done a lot of work in the research of various peptide vaccines. 

Diagnostic peptides
The main use of peptides in diagnostic reagents is as antigens to detect antibodies against corresponding pathogens. The characteristic of peptide antigens is that they have stronger specificity than natural microbial or parasitic protein antigens and are easy to prepare. Antibody testing reagents assembled with polypeptide antigens in 2013 include: Hepatitis A, B, C, G virus, AIDS virus, human cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus, rubella virus, treponema pallidum, cysticercosis, trypanosoma, Lyme disease, rheumatoid arthritis and other testing reagents. Most of the peptide antigens used are obtained through analysis and screening of natural proteins from corresponding pathogenic bodies, while some are newly obtained peptides screened from peptide libraries.