Sepsis is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the critical illness. Multiple immune inflammatory processes take part in the pathogenesis of sepsis. Defensins are endogenous antimicrobial peptides with three disulphide bonds created by six cysteine residues. Besides the intrinsic microbicidal properties, defensins are active players which modulate both innate and adaptive immunity agai...

Defensins are antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and play an important role in both innate and adaptive immune response (Ganz, 2002; Yang et al., 2004). Defensins display broad antimicrobial activities against bacteria, fungi and viruses (Ganz, 2003; Lehrer, 2004; Zanetti, 2004),(Yang et al., 2004). Importantly, they also play a role in inflammation, tissue repair and angiogenesis (Kruse and Kristen...

The state of antitumor immunity patients with oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancer during treatment (radiation chemoradiation therapy), which additionally included α/β-defensin immunotherapy, was studied. In all three study groups, where preparation α/β-defensins used, there a more pronounced dose-dependent decrease in the relative number lymphocytes blood than among those receiving cytostatic ...

BACKGROUND Beta-defensins are small cationic peptides that exhibit broad spectrum antimicrobial properties. The majority of beta-defensins identified in humans are predominantly expressed in the male reproductive tract and have roles in non-immunological processes such as sperm maturation and capacitation. Characterization of novel defensins in the male reproductive tract can lead to increased ...

Defensins, cysteine-rich cationic polypeptides released from neutrophils, are known to have powerful antimicrobial properties. In this study, we sacrificed 30 rats to investigate the effects of α-defensin 1 on detrusor muscle contractions in isolated rat bladder. From the experiments we found relaxing effects of α-defensin 1 on the contractions induced by phenylephrine (PE) but not by bethanech...

The transmembrane glycoprotein gp41 of HIV-1 contains a C1q binding domain (HIVenv 583-610) and activates the human complement system through the classical pathway. Based on structural and functional similarities between human defensins (human neutrophil peptide, HNP 1-3) and synthetic peptides representing the env 583-610 region of HIV-1, we found it interesting to investigate the C1q binding ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS The antimicrobial activity of the tear film exceeds the activity of its known constituents. The authors postulate that this excess activity is the result of antimicrobial peptides called defensins, and they aimed to look for defensins in the human eye. METHODS Evidence of defensin production was sought by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Intron spannin...

Since the beginning of the 90s lots of cationic plant, cysteine-rich antimicrobial peptides (AMP) have been studied. However, Broekaert et al. (1995) only coined the term "plant defensin," after comparison of a new class of plant antifungal peptides with known insect defensins. From there, many plant defensins have been reported and studies on this class of peptides encompass its activity towar...