Peptides were found later than amino acids and proteins (the first amino acid was found in 1806 when French chemists isolated aspartic acid from asparagus, and the first protein was found in 1838 by Dutch scientists in 1838).
In 1902, Bayliss and Starling, physiologists at the University of London School of medicine, first discovered active peptide substances in animal gastrointestinal tract, which also officially initiated the functional research of peptides. And therefore won the Nobel Prize in physiology.
In 1931, a peptide named substance P was discovered. It can excite smooth muscle and stretch blood vessels to reduce blood pressure. From then on, scientists began to pay attention to the effects of peptide substances on the nervous system, and call these substances neuropeptides.
In 1952, when biochemist Stanley Cohen implanted sarcoma into mouse embryos, he found that the growth of sympathetic nerve fibers in mice was accelerated and the ganglion was significantly enlarged. Eight years later, in 1960, it was found that this is a peptide at work, which is called nerve growth factor.
In 1953, the biochemical team led by vigneand completed the synthesis of the bioactive peptide oxytocin for the first time. Since then, the peptide research in the 1950s mainly focused on various peptide hormones secreted by the pituitary gland.
In the late 1950s, Merrifield invented the solid-phase synthesis of peptides and won the Nobel Prize for it.
In the early 1960s, there was an amazing development in the research of peptides, and the structural analysis and biological function of peptides have achieved results one after another.
In 1965, Chinese scientists completed the synthesis of bovine crystalline insulin, which is the first synthetic peptide bioactive substance in the world.
In the 1970s, the research on neuropeptides reached a climax, enkephalin and opioid peptide were found one after another, and entered the research on the influence of peptides on biological embryo development.
In 1975, Hughes and kosterlitz isolated endogenous peptides from human and animal neural tissues, enriched the content of biopharmaceutical and opened up a new field of biopharmaceutical "cell growth regulator". There are up to 100 kinds of cell growth regulators found at this time, which exceeds the sum of peptide hormones and other active peptides in clinical application.
The 1986 Nobel Prize in physiology was awarded to Stanley Cohen, who discovered peptide growth factor (NGF), for opening up a new field of broad importance for basic scientific research.
Since the 1980s, peptide research has gradually developed into an independent specialty, which includes the latest molecular biology, biosynthesis, immunochemistry, neurophysiology, clinical medicine and other disciplines of life science. Especially with the introduction of genetic engineering, many peptides can be expressed on a large scale.
In 1987, the United States approved the first genetic drug human insulin.
In the 1990s, the human genome project was launched
