Marine natural peptides: Determination of absolute configuration using liquid chromatography methods and evaluation of bioactivities

Over the last decades, many naturally occurring peptides have attracted the attention of medicinal chemists due to their promising applicability as pharmaceuticals or as models for drugs used in therapeutics. Marine peptides are chiral molecules comprising different amino acid residues. Therefore, it is essential to establish the configuration of the stereogenic carbon of their amino acid constituents for a total characterization and further synthesis to obtain higher amount of the bioactive marine peptides or as a basis for structural modifications for more potent derivatives. Moreover, it is also a crucial issue taking into account the mechanisms of molecular recognition and the influence of molecular three-dimensionality in this process. In this review, a literature survey covering the report on the determination of absolute configuration of the amino acid residues of diverse marine peptides by chromatographic methodologies is presented. A brief summary of their biological activities was also included emphasizing to the most promising marine peptides. A case study describing an experience of our group was also included. © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

This research was partially supported by the Strategic Funding UID/Multi/04423/2013 through national funds provided by FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), in the framework of the programme PT2020, the project PTDC/MAR-BIO/4694/2014 (reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016790; Project 3599—Promover a Produção Científica e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico e a Constituição de Redes Temáticas (3599-PPCDT)) as well as by the project INNOVMAR— Innovation and Sustainability in the Management and Exploitation of Marine Resources (reference NORTE-01- 0145-FEDER-000035, within Research Line NOVELMAR), supported by North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the Europeann Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and Chiral_Drugs_CESPU_2017. Phyo thanks the Erasmus Mundus Action 2 (Lotus Plus project) for a PhD’s scholarship.