Studies on a bioactive peptide QUB-2044 from the skin secretion of the Chinese frog, Odorrana schmackeri

So far, a great number of pharmacological and antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been successfully isolated and identified from the skin and associated secretions of amphibians.

Furthermore, some of these peptides have been recognised as significant novel drug leads.<br><br>This thesis focused on the study of an AMP from the defensive skin secretions of Odorrana schmackeri. The precursor structure was identified by a strategy of molecular cloning and was subjected to an NCBI-BLAST search and CLUSTAL OMEGA sequence alignment, from which the amino acid sequence of the mature peptide was deduced as: GILKGILGMGKNLVCGLSGLC. <br><br>The peptide was synthesised using Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis and subjected to a range of biological assays.