Antimalarial Activity of Ultra-Short Peptides
tetrapeptides, antimalarial activity, Plasmodium berghei, ultra-short peptides
Ultra-short peptides 1-9 were designed and synthesized with phenylalanine, ornithine and proline amino acid residues and their effect on antimalarial activity was analyzed. On the basis of the IC50 data for these compounds, the effects of nature, polarity, and amino acid sequence on Plasmodium berghei schizont cultures were analyzed too. Tetrapeptides Phe-Orn-Phe-Orn (4) and Lys-Phe-Phe-Orn (5) showed a very important activity with IC50 values of 3.31 and 2.57 μM, respectively. These two tetrapeptides are candidates for subsequent in vivo assays and SARS investigations.
María Yolanda Rios, A. Berenice Aguilar-Guadarrama, Rocío Argotte-Ramos, Lemuel Pérez-Picaso, Benjamín Velasco-Bejarano