Wheel of Fortune – Cyclic Peptides Hit the Mimetic Jackpot: Current Syntheses, Uses and Roles for Cyclic Peptide Mimetics

Cyclic peptides are a unique class of molecules that combine the specificity and larger interactive surface area of biological molecules with the favorable drug-like properties of a small molecule, including pharmacokinetic enhancements and proteolytic stability. There is much interest in the development and characterization of cyclic peptides as potential drug leads. Additionally, in the field of peptidomimetics, cyclic peptides can prove vital as probes for understanding cellular processes, such as cell penetration and modulation of signaling pathways. Cyclic peptides have great potential as therapeutics for a wide variety of diseases, targeting different mechanisms of cancer, HIV proliferation, inflammation in skin disorders, and cell survival in neurodegenerative diseases. Novel synthetic strategies for tethering cyclic peptides in a ring, including biosynthetic methods, create a large range of macrocyclic peptidomimetic compounds, opening the field to further drug design possibilities as well as novel chemical biological probes. Current studies within each of these areas in the cyclic peptide arena are described herein. Keywords: Antibiotics, macrocycle, peptide therapeutics, peptidomimetics, signaling, β-turn