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Sustainable and on-going technological developments in the field of materials require the establishment of methods and tools for assessing, comparing environmental impacts and providing solutions to the problem of “resource criticality” by identifying a policy of an economic and ecological plan. Therefore, there is a clear need for prevention and provision of additional knowledge beyond the defined protocols to achieve the reduction of impacts. For this reason, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been developed as a scientific technique that systematically assesses and evaluates the environmental impacts associated with all stages of a product's life. In this work, LCA was applied in a part of a highly innovative process of production of advanced Iron-Aluminum (Fe-Al) based intermetallics. LCA role is particularly crucial, since the produced intermetallics are bound to substitute stainless steel, in specific applications, providing solution in the problem of Cr and Ni; as a result, the environmental burdens and impacts, as well as application of alternative solutions to minimize them, will decide if such an innovative, from the technical point of view, approach is also applicable/sustainable in large scale.

The subject of this study is the synthesis and biological evaluation of anoplin-based (Gly-Leu-Leu 3 -Lys-Arg 5 -Ile-Lys-Thr 8 -Leu-Leu-NH 2 )-designed (lipo)-peptides, aiming at the development of new antibiotic substances. The design of synthetic compounds based on natural bioactive molecules is an optimistic strategy for the development of new pharmaceutics. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and (lipo)-peptides are two classes of promising compounds, with characteristics that allow them to express their activity by differentiated mechanisms of action. On this basis, anoplin, a natural AMP, was used as a scaffold to design five peptides and seven lipopeptide analogs of them. Substitutions were made on residues Leu 3 and Arg 5 of the interphase and on Thr 8 of the polar phase, as well as N-terminus conjunctions with octanoic and decanoic acid. The outcome of the biological evaluation revealed that some analogs might have substantial clinical potential. Specifically, Ano 1-F, Ano 3-F, Ano 4-C 10 , and Ano 5-F are strongly active against Gram-negative bacteria at minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 3 μg/ml, while Ano 4-F is active against Gram-positive bacteria at 1 μg/ml. Ano 2-C 10 , C 10 -Gly-Leu-Lys 3 -Lys-Ile 5 -Ile-Lys-Lys 8 -Leu-Leu-NH 2 , is the most promising compound (MIC = 0.5 μg/ml) for the development of new pharmaceutics. The conformational features of the synthetic peptides were investigated by circular dichroism spectroscopy, and their physicochemical parameters were calculated. Our study shows that appropriate substitutions in the anoplin sequence in combination with N α -acylation may lead to new effective AMPs., (© 2021 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)