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03. Science and Technology (Natural Sciences) Committee

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://repository.unesco.gov.ph/handle/123456789/3

In creating a culture of peace and addressing sustainable development challenges, UNESCO aims to cultivate the generation and application of scientific knowledge among its Member States. At UNACOM, we facilitate access to UNESCO’s international programmes in the sciences, such as the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, and International Geoscience and Geoparks Programme (IGGP), among others.

Through this sector, the Commission aims to contribute to the following SDGs: 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities, 13 - Climate Action, 14 - Life Below Water, and 15 - Life On Land. With the overarching vision of the 2023-2028 Philippine Development Plan (PDP), UNACOM targets grassroots-inspired cultural heritage and biodiversity protection and conservation, as well as multi-stakeholder partnerships for SDGs promotion.

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AGROVOC Keyword: search.filters.agrovoc.cytotoxicitySDG: search.filters.sdg.SDG 3 - Good health and well-being

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    Synthesis and biological evaluation of cyanobacterial-inspired peptides
    Casanova, Jannelle R.; Villaraza, Aaron Joseph L.; Salvador-Reyes, Lilibeth (Philippine-American Academy of Science and Engineering, 2024-03-18)
    Cyanobacteria are known producers of structurally diverse and potent natural products; the majority are peptides with unique modifications. Yet, there remains a huge underexplored chemodiversity from cyanobacteria. Here, we designed a linear octapeptide as a product of combinatorial peptide design inspired by the natural products from the filamentous cyanobacteria Hapalosiphon welwitschii and Leptolyngbya sp. The target peptide was synthesized via solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) using fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl-protecting group (Fmoc) strategy. Structural diversity was expanded by the substitution of unnatural amino acids to yield five analogues. The structure and sequence of the synthesized peptides were confirmed using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS). Biological activity evaluation was done; with none of the peptides showing antimicrobial or cytotoxic activities against microbial pathogens and mammalian cells, respectively. To our knowledge, this study is the first to report a combinatorial peptide design inspired by a natural product and a predicted biosynthetic product. This strategy of peptide design expands the chemistry of a known bioactive natural product with the aid of unexplored cyanobacterial biosynthetic gene clusters.
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    Total synthesis and bioactivity evaluation of hydrophobic microcionamide‐inspired peptides
    Inocentes, Carl Rogel V.; Salvador‐Reyes, Lilibeth A.; Villaraza, Aaron Joseph L. (Wiley, 2023-01)
    In this report, we describe the facile synthesis of four microcionamide-inspired peptides where the atypical 2-phenylethylenamine (2-PEA) functional group in the marine natural product, microcionamide A, was replaced with a similarly-aromatic but more easily incorporated tryptophan (Trp) residue. Compounds 1–4 were synthesized using a standard Fmoc-based solid-phase synthesis strategy followed by iodine-mediated on-resin cyclization for disulfide-bridged compounds 1–3. Compound 1 showed antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 9.1 μM and 15 μM, respectively. The inactivity of alanine analogs 2–4 against these pathogens suggests that the N-terminal Val, the cyclic scaffold, the contiguous Ile residues, and consequently, the hydrophobicity of compound 1 are essential for antibacterial activity. Compound 1 also favorably exhibited minimal cytotoxicity against normal mammalian cell lines. In summary, we have synthesized an analog of microcionamide A where replacement of the 2-PEA moiety with a Trp residue retained the antibacterial activity and with favorably low cytotoxicity.