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Inhibition of myostatin, which negatively regulates skeletal muscle growth, is a promising strategy for the treatment of muscle atrophic disorders, such as muscular dystrophy, cachexia and sarcopenia. Recently, we identified peptide A (H-WRQNTRYSRIEAIKIQILSKLRL-NH2 ), the 23-amino-acid minimum myostatin inhibitory peptide derived from mouse myostatin prodomain, and highlighted the importance of its N-terminal tryptophan residue for the effective inhibition. In this study, we synthesized a series of acylated peptide derivatives focused on the tryptophan residue to develop potent myostatin inhibitors. As a result of the investigation, a more potent derivative of peptide A was successfully identified in which the N-terminal tryptophan residue is replaced with a 2-naphthyloxyacetyl moiety to give an inhibitory peptide three times (1.19±0.11 μm) more potent than parent peptide A (3.53±0.25 μm). This peptide could prove useful as a new starting point for the development of improved inhibitory peptides., (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Myostatin, an endogenous negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass, is a therapeutic target for muscle atrophic disorders. Here, we identified minimum peptides 2 and 7 to effectively inhibit myostatin activity, which consist of 24 and 23 amino acids, respectively, derived from mouse myostatin prodomain. These peptides, which had the propensity to form α-helix structure, interacted to myostatin with KD values of 30-36 nM. Moreover, peptide 2 significantly increased muscle mass in Duchenne muscular dystrophy model mice.

Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death, thus a novel chemotherapeutic agent for colon cancer therapy is needed. In this study, analogues of echinomycin, a cyclic peptide natural product with potent toxicity to several human cancer cell lines, were synthesized, and their biological activities against human colon cancer cells were investigated. Analogue 3 as well as 1 inhibit HIF-1α-mediated transcription. Notably, transcriptome analysis indicated that the cell cycle and its regulation were involved in the effects on cells treated with 3. Analogue 3 exhibited superior in vivo efficacy to echinomycin without significant toxicity in mouse xenograft model. The low dose of 3 needed to be efficacious in vivo is also noteworthy and our data suggest that 3 is an attractive and potentially novel agent for the treatment of colon cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Neuromedin U (NMU), an anorexigenic peptide, has attracted attention as a candidate for development of drugs against obesity. We recently developed several potent hexapeptidic agonists derived from NMU that share a common Pro-Arg-Asn-NH2 (PRN) sequence at their C-termini and found that the amide bond between Arg and Asn is rapidly degraded in serum. In this study, we determined that the key enzyme responsible for this biodegradation was thrombin. Both irreversible and reversible thrombin inhibitors (PPACK and argatroban, respectively) enhanced the serum stability of both hexapeptidic agonists and human NMU itself as an inherent ligand. In addition, rapid degradation did not occur in citrated human plasma because thrombin was not activated under these conditions. Furthermore, we found that an N-terminal 2-thienylacetyl group in hexapeptidic agonists enhanced recognition by thrombin. These findings will be valuable for future investigations of the biological functions of NMU in vivo. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers (Pept Sci) 106: 440-445, 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arginine-rich, cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) and oligoarginines are attractive tools for intracellular delivery of various molecules with low membrane permeability. Although a variety of labeling methods have been reported, we report here the design and synthesis of a thiol (SH)-group selective solid-supported octaarginine-conjugating reagent KSH-2. KSH-2 was prepared by two steps including the activation of 3-nitro-2-pyridinesulfenyl (Npys) resin by chlorosulfenylation and the loading of a Cys( tBu)-containing octaarginine unit to form an active disulfide. In model experiments using SH-containing captopril and hexadecapeptide, solid-supported reagent KSH-2 efficiently gave the octaarginine-conjugated products with a high degree of purity by only mixing and filtration. This reagent could be applied to a wide variety of SH-containing molecules for selective oligoarginine conjugation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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