Humans produce many proteins that perform a variety of functions to keep us alive and well. Some of these, called peptides, are small in comparison to the others but do jobs that are none the less important. For example, in the brain there are neuropeptides used for signalling, in the immune system there are anti-microbial peptides to fight invading organisms and there are peptides that are hormones. Some peptide hormones are used in the clinic as therapeutic reagents but have the disadvantage of being quite expensive as they are synthesised chemically.
A team of scientists in the Laboratory for Biochemistry and Protein Science in the Department of Physiology and Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine & Surgery are exploring ways of making such peptides using bacteria as peptide factories. Novel techniques are being employed to maximise production and increase purification levels well beyond that previously accomplished, because peptides are much harder to work with than their larger protein counterparts.
With a Research Excellence Program grant Prof. Gary J Hunter, assisted by Dr Brandon Seychell have successfully produced the small peptide hormone Thymosin-a-1, a naturally occurring peptide which is widely used as therapeutic agent for a variety of medical conditions. It is licensed and marketed for use in cancer, hepatitis B, HIV, autoimmune disease, allergies and is in clinical trials to treat COVID-19. The process they have developed can be used for a variety of other peptides or small proteins.
