Screening for new bioactive
peptides in South American anurans has been pioneered in frogs of the genus Phyllomedusa. All frogs of this genus have venomous skin secretions, i.e., a
complex mixture of bioactive
peptides against potential predators and pathogens that presumably evolved in a scenario of predator-prey interaction and defense against microbial invasion. For every new anuran species studied new
peptides are found, with homologies to
hormones,
neurotransmitters, antimicrobials, and several other
peptides with unknown
biological activity. From Vittorio Erspamer findings, this genus has been reported as a "treasure store" of bioactive
peptides, and several groups focus their research on these species. From 1966 to 2009, more than 200
peptide sequences from different Phyllomedusa species were deposited in UniProt and other databases. During the last decade, the emergence of high-throughput molecular technologies involving de novo
peptide sequencing via tandem mass spectrometry,
cDNA cloning, pharmacological screening, and surface plasmon resonance applied to
peptide discovery, led to fast structural data acquisition and the generation of
peptide molecular libraries. Research groups on bioactive
peptides in Brazil using these new technologies, accounted for the exponential increase of new molecules described in the last decade, much higher than in any previous decades. Recently, these secretions were also reported as a rich source of multiple
antimicrobial peptides effective against multidrug resistant strains of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and virus, providing instructive lessons for the development of new and more efficient nanotechnological-based
therapies for
infectious diseases treatment. Therefore, novel drugs arising from the identification and analysis of bioactive
peptides from South American anuran biodiversity have a promising future role on nanobiotechnology.