Synthetic molecular evolution of antimicrobial peptides

Charles H Chen; Tristan Bepler; Karen Pepper; Debbie Fu; Timothy K Lu

doi:10.1016/j.copbio.2022.102718

Synthetic molecular evolution of antimicrobial peptides

Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2022 Jun:75:102718. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2022.102718. Epub 2022 Apr 5.

Authors

Charles H Chen¹, Tristan Bepler², Karen Pepper³, Debbie Fu⁴, Timothy K Lu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Synthetic Biology Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Electronic address: chenchar22@gmail.com.
² Synthetic Biology Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Simons Machine Learning Center, New York Structural Biology Center, New York, NY 10027, USA.
³ Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
⁴ Department of Biology, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA.
⁵ Synthetic Biology Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Synthetic Biology Group, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Senti Biosciences, South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA. Electronic address: tim@lugroup.org.

PMID: 35395425
DOI: 10.1016/j.copbio.2022.102718

Abstract

As we learn more about how peptide structure and activity are related, we anticipate that antimicrobial peptides will be engineered to have strong potency and distinct functions and that synthetic peptides will have new biomedical applications, such as treatments for emerging infectious diseases. As a result of the enormous number of possible amino acid sequences and the low-throughput nature of antimicrobial peptide assays, computational tools for peptide design and optimization are needed for direct experimentation toward obtaining functional sequences. Recent developments in computational tools have improved peptide design, saving labor, reagents, costs, and time. At the same time, improvements in peptide synthesis and experimental platforms continue to reduce the cost and increase the throughput of peptide-drug screening. In this review, we discuss the current methods of peptide design and engineering, including in silico methods and peptide synthesis and screening, and highlight areas of potential improvement.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Amino Acid Sequence
Antimicrobial Peptides*
Drug Evaluation, Preclinical
Evolution, Molecular
Peptides* / chemistry

Substances

Antimicrobial Peptides
Peptides

Grants and funding

U19 AI142780/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States