Mastoparan

Mastoparan is a 14-residue cationic peptide toxin isolated from the wasp Vespula lewisii venom which shows an important potency as an antimicrobial and anticancer agent but also as a Cell Permeable Peptide. Mastoparan is mainly known to be a receptor-independant and allosteric regulator of G-protein by stimulating GTPase activity. Besides modulating the activity of G-protein, Mastoparan have the ability to bind other intracellular targets such as Ca2+-ATP (implicated in Ca2+ release), small GTP binding proteins rho and rac, and many others. Mastoparan also belongs to the cell permeable peptide (CPP) family. As such, Mastoparan increases the membrane conductance and permeability of planar lipid bilayer and liposomal membranes which leads to enhanced the penetration of Ca2+, Na+ or K+ ions. Mastoparan have also a potential antibiotic effect due to its potent antimicrobial activity which can turn Mastoparan to a potential drug for infectious diseases. Some studies have also reported that Mastoparan exhibits potent anti-cancer activities toward leukemia, myeloma, and breast cancer cells with an approximately half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 9µM, 11µM and 22µM respectively. Mastoparan have shown to be more specific to cancer cells than to normal cells.