Buforin II is a 21-aa potent antimicrobial peptide that forms, in a hydrophobic medium, an amphipathic structure consisting of an N-terminal random coil region (residues 1-4), an extended helical region (residues 5-10), a hinge (residue 11), and a C-terminal regular alpha-helical region (residues 12-21). To elucidate the structural features of buforin II that are required for its potent antimic...

The antimicrobial activity of bovine lactoferrin hydrolysates (bLFH) was measured against Pseudomonas strains (P. syringae and P. fluorescens) in vitro. To compare susceptibility to bLFH, minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values were determined using chemiluminescence assays and paper disc plate assays. Antimicrobial effect against P. fluorescens was not observed by either assay, suggestin...

Host defense peptides (often called cationic antimicrobial peptides) have pleiotropic immunomodulatory functions. The human host defense peptide LL-37 is up-regulated at sites of infection and has little or no antimicrobial activity in tissue-culture media but under the same conditions, demonstrates immunomodulatory effects on epithelial cells, monocytes, and dendritic cells (DC). These effects...

Antimicrobial peptides are promising candidates for anti-infective pharmaceuticals. Unfortunately, because of their low proteolytic and chemical stability, their usage is generally narrowed down to topical formulations. Until now, numerous approaches to increase peptide stability have been proposed. One of them, peptide hydrocarbon stapling, a modification based on stabilizing peptide secondary...

Some inactive precursor proteins, or zymogens, contain small, amino terminus, homopolymeric regions of Asp that neutralize the cationic charge of the active protein during synthesis. After posttranslational cleavage, the anionic propeptide fragment may exhibit antimicrobial activity. To demonstrate this, ovine trypsinogen activation peptide, and frog (Xenopus laevis) PYL activation peptide, bot...

Planar systems--monolayers and films--constitute a useful platform for studying membrane-active peptides. Here, we summarize varied approaches for studying peptide organization and peptide-lipid interactions at the air/water interface, and focus on three representative antimicrobial membrane--associated peptides-alamethicin, gramicidin, and valinomycin. Experimental data, specifically surface p...