Marine Peptides and Their Bioactive Potentials: New Horizon for Biotherapeutics

Marine ecosystems act as a reservoir of innumerable novel bioactive compounds by instigating stressful environments. Thus, marine bio-resources have been extensively explored in the last decades for novel potential bioactive secondary metabolites for functional food, cosmetic, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and biomedical research. Marine peptides are a class of nontoxic bioactive natural products renowned to regulate specific biological processes by offering high therapeutic index. Recently, due to their functional properties like solubility, high selectivity, and good efficacy, marine peptides have gathered attention for their industrial applications. This chapter provides an overview of peptide bioavailability, the role of peptidomimetics, peptide encapsulation, current strategies of peptide purification, peptide production strategies, and distribution and bioactivity spectrum of active peptides based on the phylum from which they are derived. Moreover, we also discuss the clinical efficacy of marine peptide drugs that have reached the clinical trial phase, challenges, and future perspectives to empower peptide-based drug discovery.