Henriques ST, Craik DJ
Cyclotides as Templates in Drug Design. [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
Drug Discov Today 2009 Oct 27.
Cyclotides are remarkably stable proteins from plants that have a range of pharmaceutical and agricultural applications based both on their various bioactivities and their potential for use as stable protein engineering templates. This article discusses literature on pharmaceutically relevant activities of cyclotides, including anti-HIV, antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities, and evaluates their potential therapeutic applications. Their applications as templates for the design of anti-angiogenic agents for the treatment of cancer, and as anti-infective agents, are also described. Toxic effects of cyclotides, whose native function is as insecticidal agents, can be removed by simple mutagenesis, thus rationalizing the apparent conundrum of proposing insecticidal agents as leads for human therapeutics.
More from this journal |
