Peptides, Proteins and Their Derivatives with Therapeutic Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Peptides and proteins are biomolecules known from decades to be important players in physiological and pathological states of all living organisms. This explains why therapeutics based on those molecules were successfully developed in the past and why new therapeutics based on them will emerged.

Furthermore, as therapeutics drugs, in addition to natural peptides and proteins created by Nature, humans created derivatives of them (such as peptidomimetics) that are bioinspired molecules designed in order to mimic the biological activities of peptides/proteins and to correct their limitations including their poor bioavailability, immunogenicity, and/or sensitivity to degradation by proteases.

Peptides/proteins and their derivatives can possess a large panel of biological activities useful to treat humans, animals, or plants diseases making them drug candidates.

As an example, numerous peptides/proteins and their derivatives have been demonstrated to possess anti-infective activity linked to their ability to: i) prevent pathogen’s adhesion to host cells, and/or to ii) directly kill micro-organisms through antimicrobial activity (antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, or antiparasitic action).

Similarly, peptides/proteins and their derivatives could inhibit the growth and/or cause the death of malignant cells, making them interesting tools to treat cancer.

Many other biological activities have been reported for peptides/proteins and their derivatives including modulatory action of the immune, nerve or endocrine system and/or modifications of cell functions in connection to health or disease.

The topic collection “Peptides, proteins and their derivatives with therapeutic applications” welcomes submissions (reviews and original articles) dealing with all biological activities of natural peptides/proteins and their bio-inspired derivatives, such as peptidomimetics in relation to their potential uses as therapeutics.

Dr. Marc Maresca
Collection Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the collection website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomolecules is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.