Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been proposed as new class of antimicrobial drugs, following the increasing prevalence of bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Synthetic AMPs are functional analogues of highly evolutionarily conserved immune effectors in animals and plants, produced in response to microbial infection. Therefore, the proposed therapeutic use of AMPs bears the risk of 'arming the...

Numerous antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) from marine fish have been identified, isolated and characterized. These peptides act as host defense molecules that exert antimicrobial effects by targeting the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Gram-negative bacteria. The LPS-AMP interactions are driven by the biophysical properties of AMPs. In this review, therefore, we will focus on the physiochemical proper...

The importance to develop effective alternatives to known antibiotics due to increased microbial resistance is gaining momentum in recent years. Therefore, it is of interest to predict, design and computationally model Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs). AMPs are oligopeptides with varying size (from 5 to over100 residues) having key role in innate immunity. Thus, the potential exploitation of AMPs ...

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are important immune effector molecules for invertebrates, including echinoderms, which lack a vertebrate-type adaptive immune system. Here we summarize the knowledge of such peptides in echinoderms. Strongylocins are a novel family of cysteine-rich AMPs, recently identified in the sea urchins, Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis and S. purpuratus. Although these mol...

The nature and relative proportions of acid mucopolysacharides (AMPS) in mitral valves of normal individuals and individuals with rheumatic valvular disease were compared. The total AMPS content of valves from rheumatic patients under 21 years of age is significantly higher than that from older rheumatic patients and higher than that from age-matched normal controls. The major AMPS components o...

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are diverse, biologically active, essential components of the innate immune system. As compared to conventional antibiotics, AMPs exhibit broad spectrum antimicrobial activity, reduced toxicity and reduced microbial resistance. They are widely researched for their therapeutic potential, especially against multi-drug resistant pathogens. AMPs are known to have famil...

It has been unclear to which antimicrobial activities (e.g., anti-gram-positive bacterial, anti-gram-negative bacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, and antiviral activities) of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) a given physiochemical property matters most. This is the first computational study using large-scale AMPs to examine the relationships between antimicrobial activities and two major physioc...

BACKGROUND Sustained exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) is a global cause of mortality. Coal fly ash (CFA) is a byproduct of coal combustion and is a source of anthropogenic PM with worldwide health relevance. The airway epithelia are lined with fluid called airway surface liquid (ASL), which contains antimicrobial proteins and peptides (AMPs). Cationic AMPs bind negatively charged bac...

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been identified throughout the metazoa suggesting their evolutionarily conserved nature and their presence in teleosts is no exception. AMPs are short (18-46 amino acids), usually cationic, amphipathic peptides. While AMPs are diverse in amino acid sequence, with no two AMPs being identical, they collectively appear to have conserved functions in the innate im...

Rhizoma Atractylodis macrocephalae have an important role in treating cerebrovascular diseases in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The purpose of the present study was to determine the neuroprotective effect of Atractylodis macrocephalaon polysaccharides (AMPS) on hypoxia-induced apoptosis of cerebral cortical neurons. Neuronal cells obtained from neonatal rats were divided into the followin...