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Therapeutic potential of peptides
Currently there are more than 80 peptide drugs on the global market and about twice as many in clinical development. Due to their beneficial properties, these biomolecules play already an important role in the treatment of diseases such as diabetes, cancer, hormone disorders, HIV infection, and multiple sclerosis. In the recent issue of “Nature Reviews Drug Discovery”, a team of Austrian and Australian scientists led by medicinal chemist Markus Muttenthaler of the University of Vienna present an outlook on the latest trends in peptide drug discovery and development.
“Insulin is a prime example for a successful peptide drug that has been essential for the health of millions of diabetic patients in the past 100 years,” says Markus Muttenthaler, who leads research groups at the Institute of Biological Chemistry of the Faculty of Chemistry at University in Vienna as well as at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, at the University
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Gut microbes in plant-eating ants help build tougher armor
Gut bacteria in a species of herbivorous ant play a major role in processing nutrients that allow the ants to build tough exoskeletons, an international team of researchers has found.
In the study, “Gut Bacteria Are Essential for Normal Cuticle Development in Herbivorous Turtle Ants,” which published Jan. 29 in Nature Communications, the researchers specifically broke down which components the bacteria contributed so their host could build a thicker armor. Steven Wang/Provided
Florida turtle ant.
When the researchers killed off the gut microbes in plant-eating turtle ants, their exoskeletons were only half as thick as normal turtle ants. The results reveal diverse roles that gut bacteria can play in organisms.