Identification and molecular cloning of skin secretion peptides from selected Eurasian amphibians

• Main Author: Hou, Xiaojuan
• Published: Queen's University Belfast 2015
• Subjects: 572
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.680080

The skin secretions of amphibians are used as a chemical defence mechanism as protection against predators within their natural environments. Among the classes of compounds contained within the secretions, peptides with diverse bioactivities, such as antimicrobial and pharmacological, are generally the most abundant. Such peptides may have therapeutic potential. In particular, the antimicrobial peptides have their own advantages, when compared with conventional clinical antibiotics. Many scientists have thus been studying the biologically-active peptides of amphibian skin and attempting to assess them as candidates for future therapeutic drugs. This thesis describes analyses performed on bioactive peptides from the skins of bombinid toads and ranid frogs. However, as the skin secretions of amphibians are complex mixtures of compounds, the identification of single active compounds in the past years was complicated and the outputs were consequently of a relatively low order. In recent years, advances in detection and analytical techniques have greatly aided in the identification of single active novel compounds from such skin secretions. In this thesis, several antimicrobial peptides and one pharmacological peptide were identified from the selected amphibian species. These isolated novel peptides demonstrate that the skins/skin secretions of amphibians continue to represent a rich source of natural peptides with varied structures and distinct bioactivities.