Plant-Derived Bioactive Proteins and Peptides as Emerging Therapeutics: Current Evidence and Potential Translational Challenges

Abstract

Medicinal plants have long served as a cornerstone of traditional therapies, primarily recognized for their rich repertoire of secondary metabolites. Beyond these small molecules, plants produce a diverse array of proteins endowed with potent bioactive properties that remain comparatively underexplored in modern drug discovery. This review aims to consolidate and highlight the current knowledge on major families of plant-derived proteins and peptides with medicinal value, with particular emphasis on their mechanisms of action, therapeutic limitations, mitigation strategies, and translational potential. A narrative literature survey was conducted using peer-reviewed studies to feature plant proteins/peptides, such as lectins, pathogen-related proteins, RIPs, proteases, etc., with reported medicinal values. The review highlights how plant proteins exert therapeutic effects through defined molecular interactions, including enzymatic catalysis, selective membrane disruption, receptor binding, immune modulation, and interference with pathogen or cancer-associated cellular processes, resulting in antiviral, antifungal, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory activities. It is believed that the evolutionary diversification and lineage-specific expansion of these protein families have generated extensive functional variability, increasing the likelihood of identifying molecules with novel or enhanced bioactivity. Advances in genomics, proteomics, and recombinant expression technologies have further accelerated protein discovery, functional characterization, and bioengineering, enabling improved specificity, stability, and delivery. Collectively, the evidence supports plant-derived proteins as a versatile and multifunctional class of biomolecules that complement conventional small-molecule therapeutics, while underscoring the need for systematic characterization, optimized production strategies, and well-designed preclinical and clinical studies to support their future application in disease prevention, management, and biomedical innovation.