Abstract

Peptides are molecules of paramount importance in several fields, especially in health care and nutrition. They have many beneficial health effects, such as antimicrobial, antiviral, antitumor, neuroactive and immunoactive activity. Several technologies for their production are now available such as chemical synthesis, biosynthesis and chemo-enzymatic peptide synthesis. For combining the advantages of chemical and enzymatic synthesis methods, chemo-enzymatic peptide synthesis has been attracting the interest of researchers in the peptide synthesis. In this paper, new progress in this method was reported. Enzymes, solvent systems and possible mechanisms were presented. The main strategies of chemo-enzymatic synthesis of peptides andmodification of enzymes by using different methods were also discussed.

Key words: Peptides, enzymes, solvent systems, chemo-enzymatic synthesis, genetic engineering, one-pot synthesis.