Natural and redesigned wasp venom peptides with selective antitumoral activity

• Marcelo D. T. Torres,
• Gislaine P. Andrade,
• Roseli H. Sato,
• Cibele N. Pedron,
• Tania M. Manieri,
• Giselle Cerchiaro,
• Anderson O. Ribeiro,
• Cesar de la Fuente-Nunez and
• Vani X. Oliveira Jr.

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2018, 14, 1693–1703, doi:10.3762/bjoc.14.144

• show that both a natural antimicrobial peptide (AMP) derived from wasp venom (decoralin, Dec-NH2), and its synthetic variants generated via peptide design, display potent activity against cancer cells. We tested the derivatives at increasing doses and observed anticancer activity at concentrations as

• of selective anticancer peptide therapeutics. Keywords: breast cancer; decoralin; MCF-7 cells; peptide design; selective anticancer peptides; structure–activity relationships; Introduction Approximately 12% of U.S. women develop breast cancer according to the U.S. Breast Cancer website (http

• et al. described decoralin (Dec-Ser-Leu-Leu-Ser-Leu-Ile-Arg-Lys-Leu-Ile-Thr), an α-helical AMP from Oreumenes decoratus wasp venom [24]. In addition, the authors described its amidated analog (Dec-NH2), which displayed higher activity than its parent molecule against Gram-positive bacteria, Gram