Poster with Rapid Fire Oral 12th Australian Peptide Conference 2017

Structure-function relationships of Ov-GRN-1 as a novel wound healing agent (#80)

Mohadeseh Dastpeyman 1 , Michael Smout , Paramjit Bansal 1 , David Wilson 1 , Alex Loukas 1 , Norelle Daly 1
  1. Centre for Biodiscovery and Molecular Development of Therapeutics, Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD, Australia

Granulins are a family of growth factors that are involved in cell proliferation. The liver-fluke granulin, Ov-GRN-1, isolated from a carcinogenic liver fluke Opisthorchis viverrine, has been previously shown to significantly accelerate wound repair in vivo and in vitro. However, Ov-GRN-1 is difficult to express in high yields making it unlikely to be a valuable drug lead. We have recently shown that truncated analogues of Ov-GRN-1 can promote cell proliferation and are potent in a mouse model of wound healing. These peptides have greater potential in the development of novel wound healing agents because they are likely to be cheaper to manufacture and less likely to have immunogenic effects. Optimisation of the folding properties and insight into the role of the proline residues in conformational heterogeneity, the subjects of the current study, are likely to facilitate their development as novel wound healing agents.