Heneampong Isaac

CHEM 300

A report base on scientific ideology to unravel a problem

Many global issues have developed over the years due to scientific discovery, industrialization,
agricultural advancement, genetic engineering, and modifications. Some of these developments have
contributed to many conditions in humans that can be hormonal, microbial, and autoimmune. With these
problems, scientists have developed new therapeutic methods which share an extensive look into how
peptides which can be natural or synthetic be used to treat and cure these conditions. This brings us to the
first isolated and sequenced peptide which is insulin from dog and cows and they were used for the
treatment of diabetes. Also certain natural product peptides (derived from animals, marine, fungi, plants
and others) are used to check the activation of the osteoclasts and osteoblast for the treatment of
osteoporosis.
There are many drawbacks that come with these highly active peptides in relation to the combat of certain
conditions other than certain peptides found in humans. Some of these biomedical challenges involve
their metabolic mean half-life in the body, bioavailability, renal disposal, selectivity of targets and many
others. It was then discovered that the short metabolic half-lives of endogenous human hormones,
posed a great challenge for therapeutic development. To overcome this issue, medicinal chemists
employed various approaches to increase the stability of these hormones, as well as improve their
potency, selectivity, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics. This study brought about the isolation
and synthesis of oxytocin and vasopressin which were modified using chemical techniques such as d-
amino acids, unnatural amino acids, N-terminal capping, extensions of N- or C-termini, and disulfide
bond mimetics. These modifications aimed to enhance the stability, potency, and selectivity of the
hormones. Eventually, these efforts led to the development of successful drugs such as desmopressin,
terlipressin, carbetocin, and atosiban.

It can be seen that peptides from different sources, natural products, or synthetical made can be used to
treat many conditions

Thank you.