Biological Macromolecule-Based Dressings for Combat Wounds: From Collagen to Growth Factors-A Review.

Wound care in military and combat environments poses distinct challenges that set it apart from conventional medical practice in civilian settings. The nature of injuries sustained on the battlefield-often complex, contaminated, and involving extensive tissue damage-combined with limited access to immediate medical intervention, significantly increases the risk of infection, delayed healing, and adverse outcomes. Traditional wound dressings frequently prove inadequate under such extreme conditions, as they have not been designed to address the specific physiological and logistical constraints present during armed conflicts.

Respiratory and Cardiovascular Activity of LENART01, an Analgesic Dermorphin-Ranatensin Hybrid Peptide, in Anesthetized Rats.

Opioids are among the most effective drugs for treating moderate to severe pain. Unfortunately, opioid use, even short-term, can lead to addiction, tolerance, overdose, and respiratory depression. Therefore, efforts to design and develop novel compounds that would retain analgesic activity while reducing side effects continue unabated.

AMPEC4: Venom-Derived Peptide as a Stimulator of Fibroblast Migration with Antibacterial Activity.

The treatment of proctological conditions, including hemorrhoids, anal fissures, and perianal abscesses, is often complicated by bacterial infections, particularly those involving multidrug-resistant . This study presents the synthesis, characterization, and biological evaluation of the newly designed synthetic peptide AMPEC4, inspired by cytotoxin 5 from snake venom. AMPEC4 demonstrated potent antimicrobial properties with MIC values of 100 and 200 µg/mL, effectively inhibiting biofilm formation (up to 84%) and eradicating the pre-formed biofilm by up to 35%.

Exploring Nepicastat Activity: Beyond DβH.

Recently, an old drug, disulfiram, has been shown to reduce cocaine intake by inhibiting dopamine beta (β)-hydroxylase. Its effectiveness was also reported in opioid treatment, as disulfiram attenuated morphine-induced tolerance and dependence. A similar mechanism of action was evident in a selective inhibitor of DβH, nepicastat, particularly in the aspect of cocaine-seeking behavior.

Anticandidal Activity of Lipopeptides Containing an LL-37-Derived Peptide Fragment KR12.

Candidiasis belongs to common fungal infections and is usually mild and self-limiting. However, in patients with immunodeficiencies, it can transform into invasive infections with high mortality. Long-term antifungal treatment can lead to the emergence of resistance.

activities of lipopeptides against fluconazole-resistant .

has increasingly become a global threat due to its wide range of antifungal resistances as well as its ability to sustain outbreaks in clinical settings. Two lipopeptides, C14-NleRR-NH (Nel) and C14-WRR-NH (WR), were evaluated against six fluconazole-resistant isolates. Both molecules showed good antimicrobial activity as demonstrated by MIC determination, time-kill, and microscopy experiments.

Multifunctionality and Possible Medical Application of the BPC 157 Peptide-Literature and Patent Review.

BPC 157, known as the "Body Protection Compound", is a pentadecapeptide isolated from human gastric juice that demonstrated its pleiotropic beneficial effects in various preclinical models mimicking medical conditions, such as tissue injury, inflammatory bowel disease, or even CNS disorders. Unlike many other drugs, BPC 157 has a desirable safety profile, since only a few side effects have been reported following its administration. Nevertheless, this compound was temporarily banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 2022 (it is not currently listed as banned by the WADA).

Marine Peptides: Potential Basic Structures for the Development of Hybrid Compounds as Multitarget Therapeutics for the Treatment of Multifactorial Diseases.

Marine-derived peptides display potent antihypertensive, antioxidant, analgesic and antimicrobial biological effects. Some of them have also been found to have anticancer activity via various mechanisms differing from those of continental organisms. This diversity of properties-together with the peptides' efficacy, which has been confirmed in several in vitro and in vivo studies-make these compounds attractive as functional ingredients in pharmacy, especially in regard to multitarget drugs known as hybrids.

Insight into the Course of the Ferrier Rearrangement Used to Obtain Untypical Diosgenyl Saponins.

The Ferrier rearrangement was utilized to obtain 2,3-unsaturated diosgenyl glycosides. This reaction proceeded with high stereoselectivity, yielding mostly saponins with an α configuration (hexoses) or predominantly with a β configuration (pentoses). The diversity of the glycals used and the glycosides obtained enabled a deep discussion of the Ferrier rearrangement mechanism.

AI-Assisted Detection of Biomarkers by Sensors and Biosensors for Early Diagnosis and Monitoring.

The steady progress in consumer electronics, together with improvement in microflow techniques, nanotechnology, and data processing, has led to implementation of cost-effective, user-friendly portable devices, which play the role of not only gadgets but also diagnostic tools. Moreover, numerous smart devices monitor patients' health, and some of them are applied in point-of-care (PoC) tests as a reliable source of evaluation of a patient's condition. Current diagnostic practices are still based on laboratory tests, preceded by the collection of biological samples, which are then tested in clinical conditions by trained personnel with specialistic equipment.

The Study of Antistaphylococcal Potential of Omiganan and Retro-Omiganan Under Flow Conditions.

Staphylococcus aureus is considered one of the leading pathogens responsible for infections in humans and animals. The heterogeneous nature of diseases caused by these bacteria is due to the occurrence of multiple strains, differentiated by several mechanisms of antibiotic resistance and virulence factors. One of these is the ability to form biofilm.

New Teixobactin Analogues with a Total Lactam Ring.

Teixobactin is a new antibiotic peptide with strong efficacy against several Gram-positive resistant bacteria, the structure of which is extremely difficult to obtain in the laboratory via multistep conventional synthesis. To face the increasing antibiotic resistant bacteria, it is fundamental to introduce new types of antibiotics with innovative mechanisms of action without resistance; thus, many scientists are studying and developing new methods to synthesize teixobactin analogues. In this work, seven Arg-teixobactin analogues with a total lactam ring have been prepared via solid phase peptide synthesis.

Interdisciplinary approach to synthesis, stability and antimicrobial activity of silver nanoparticles.

Introduction: Chronic wounds are an increasing problem for health care all over the world. New treatment options for this illness are desired, especially antimicrobial agents. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) can be a potential substance that may be used in treatment of chronic wounds due to the growing antibiotic resistance.

Evaluation of Linkers' Influence on Peptide-Based Piezoelectric Biosensors' Sensitivity to Aldehydes in the Gas Phase.

Recent findings qualified aldehydes as potential biomarkers for disease diagnosis. One of the possibilities is to use electrochemical biosensors in point-of-care (PoC), but these need further development to overcome some limitations. Currently, the primary goal is to enhance their metrological parameters in terms of sensitivity and selectivity.

Discovering highly potent antimicrobial peptides with deep generative model HydrAMP.

Antimicrobial peptides emerge as compounds that can alleviate the global health hazard of antimicrobial resistance, prompting a need for novel computational approaches to peptide generation. Here, we propose HydrAMP, a conditional variational autoencoder that learns lower-dimensional, continuous representation of peptides and captures their antimicrobial properties. The model disentangles the learnt representation of a peptide from its antimicrobial conditions and leverages parameter-controlled creativity.

Interaction of Positively Charged Oligopeptides with Blood Plasma Proteins.

In this project, we combine two areas of research, experimental characterization and molecular docking studies of the interaction of positively charged oligopeptides with crucial blood plasma proteins. The investigated peptides are rich in NH groups of amino acid side chains from Dap, Orn, Lys, and Arg residues, which are relevant in protein interaction. The peptides are 9- and 11-mer with the following sequences: (Lys-Dab-Dab-Gly-Orn-Pro-His-Lys-Arg-Lys-Dbt), (Lys-Dab-Ala-Gly-Orn-Pro-His-Lys-Arg), and (Lys-Dab-Dab-Gly-Orn-Pro-Phe(2-F)-Lys-Arg).

Glycosylated Lipopeptides-Synthesis and Evaluation of Antimicrobial Activity and Cytotoxicity.

Ultrashort cationic lipopeptides (USCLs) are promising antimicrobial agents that may be used to combat pathogens such as bacteria and fungi. USCLs consist of a few basic amino acid residues and at least one lipid moiety, usually a fatty acid chain. Generally, USCLs are potent antimicrobials but their major shortcoming is a relatively high cytotoxicity and hemolytic activity.

Understanding the Role of Self-Assembly and Interaction with Biological Membranes of Short Cationic Lipopeptides in the Effective Design of New Antibiotics.

This study investigates short cationic antimicrobial lipopeptides composed of 2-4 amino acid residues and C-C fatty acids attached to the N-terminal part of the peptides. The findings were discussed in the context of the relationship among biological activity, self-assembly, stability, and membrane interactions. All the lipopeptides showed the ability to self-assemble in PBS solution.

Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Thiazole-Based Derivatives with Potential against Breast Cancer and Antimicrobial Agents.

Investigating novel, biologically-active coordination compounds that may be useful in the design of breast anticancer, antifungal, and antimicrobial agents is still the main challenge for chemists. In order to get closer to solving this problem, three new copper coordination compounds containing thiazole-based derivatives were synthesized. The structures of the synthesized compounds and their physicochemical characterization were evaluated based on elemental analysis, H and C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (F-AAS), single-crystal X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).

In Vitro Activity of Novel Lipopeptides against Triazole-Resistant .

Aspergillosis, which is mainly sustained by , includes a broad spectrum of diseases. They are usually severe in patients with co-morbidities. The first-line therapy includes triazoles, for which an increasing incidence of drug resistance has been lately described.

Lipoic Acid-Coated Silver Nanoparticles: Biosafety Potential on the Vascular Microenvironment and Antibacterial Properties.

To study and compare the antibacterial properties and the potential cytotoxic effects of commercially available uncoated silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with lipoic acid coated silver nanoparticles (AgNPsLA) developed by our group. The antibacterial, cytotoxic, and hemolytic properties of those NPs were assessed with the main objective of investigating if AgNPsLA could maintain their antibacterial properties while improving their biosafety profile over uncoated AgNPs within the blood vessel's microenvironment. Comercially available uncoated 2.

Silver Nanoparticles as Chlorhexidine and Metronidazole Drug Delivery Platforms: Their Potential Use in Treating Periodontitis.

Purpose: Periodontal disease (PD), defined as oral inflammation caused by dental plaque, is an emerging problem. PD may lead to tooth loss, and treatment options are limited. In this study, we designed, synthesized, and characterized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) conjugated with chlorhexidine (AgNPs-CHL) or metronidazole (AgNPs-PEG-MET) to determine whether they can be used to treat PDs.

The Effect of Conjugation with Octaarginine, a Cell-Penetrating Peptide on Antifungal Activity of Imidazoacridinone Derivative.

Acridine cell-penetrating peptide conjugates are an extremely important family of compounds in antitumor chemotherapy. These conjugates are not so widely analysed in antimicrobial therapy, although bioactive peptides could be used as nanocarriers to smuggle antimicrobial compounds. An octaarginine conjugate of an imidazoacridinone derivative (Compound ) synthetized by us exhibited high antifungal activity against reference and fluconazole-resistant clinical strains (MICs ≤ 4 μg mL).