Multifunctional cationic host defence peptides and their clinical applications

Abstract

With the rapid rise in the emergence of bacterial strains resistant to multiple classes of antimicrobial agents, there is an urgent need to develop novel antimicrobial therapies to combat these pathogens. Cationic host defence peptides (HDPs) and synthetic derivatives termed innate defence regulators (IDRs) represent a promising alternative approach in the treatment of microbial-related diseases. Cationic HDPs (also termed antimicrobial peptides) have emerged from their origins as nature's antibiotics and are widely distributed in organisms from insects to plants to mammals and non-mammalian vertebrates. Although their original and primary function was proposed to be direct antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, parasites and/or viruses, cationic HDPs are becoming increasingly recognized as multifunctional mediators, with both antimicrobial activity and diverse immunomodulatory properties. Here we provide an overview of the antimicrobial and immunomodulatory activities of cationic HDPs, and discuss their potential application as beneficial therapeutics in overcoming infectious diseases.

Investigation into the mechanism of action of the antimicrobial peptides Os and Os-C derived from a tick defensin

“…Disadvantages of using AMPs as antimicrobial treatments include susceptibility to proteases, limited knowledge on toxicity profiles and unknown systemic effects as well as the high cost of production [38]. Therefore, natural AMPs are often used as templates to develop structural analogs with decreased size and increased activity.…”

Three-dimensional NMR Structure of Hen Egg Gallin (Chicken Ovodefensin) Reveals a New Variation of the β-Defensin Fold

“…Root mean square deviations testify that the three-dimensional structure is very well defined with a pairwise root mean square deviation on the C␣ atoms of 0.47Å, and calculated energies are totally satisfactory (Table 2). (47,48), such as defensins or such as host defense peptides in general, it could be particularly instructive to explore whether a priori unrelated proteins, with very low sequence identity, could match with the protein of interest. Structural databanks were explored to determine if other proteins adopt the five-stranded ␤-sheet fold described for gallin.…”

Lipid-packing perturbation of model membranes by pH-responsive antimicrobial peptides

“…The search for and development of new antibiotic compounds was identified as a task of global importance in the recent O'Neil report to the United Kingdom government on the reduction of the widespread increase in microorganism resistance (O'Neill 2015). Several recently investigated cationic peptides are currently undergoing clinical trials (Marshall and Arenas 2003;Arias and Murray 2009;Yeung et al 2011;Bahar and Ren 2013).…”