The preclinical in vitro and in vivo benchmark figures of cationic antimicrobial peptides have to be revisited based on the newly discovered alternative modes of action.

A single animal can express several cationic antimicrobial peptides with different sequences and structures. We demonstrate that mammalian peptides from different structural classes frequently show synergy with each other and selectively show synergy with human lysozyme.

Over the past decade, levels of bacterial resistance to antibiotics have risen dramatically and "superbugs" resistant to most or all available agents have appeared in the clinic. Thus there is a growing need to discover and introduce new drugs. One potential source of novel antibiotics is the cationic antimicrobial peptides, which have been isolated from most living entities as components of th...

introduction: scorpion venom is a source of bioactive peptides, and some antimicrobial peptides (amps) have been found in the venom gland of scorpions. therefore, the discovery of new anti-infective agents is an essential need to overcome the problem of antibiotic resistance of clinical isolates. here, we describe three new cationic amps, including meuvap-6, meuap-18-1, and meupep34 from the ve...

Cationic amphiphilic peptides that are found throughout nature have very broad-spectrum activities against microbes. The initial sites of interaction are with microbial membranes. Although dogma suggests that their lethal action involves disruption of the cytoplasmic membranes, a number of cationic peptides can traverse intact membranes to interact with internal targets.

Cationic antimicrobial peptides are found in all living species. A single animal can contain >24 different antimicrobial peptides, which fall into four structural classes. These peptides are produced in large quantities at sites of infection and/or inflammation and can have broad-spectrum antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antiprotozoan and antisepsis properties. In addition, they interact d...

The effectiveness of antimicrobial compounds can be easily screened, however their mechanism of action is much more difficult to determine. Many compounds act by compromising the mechanical integrity of the bacterial cell envelope, and our study introduces an AFM-based creep deformation technique to evaluate changes in the time-dependent mechanical properties of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 bact...

background: antimicrobial peptides with relative length (2-100 amino acids) and positive charge (pure charge (+9)-(+2)) are amphiphilic that isolated from a wide range of animals. recently, these peptides have been known as a part of innate immune response. nowadays, more than 500 antimicrobial peptides from animals have been reported. objectives: the aim of this study was to evaluate the anti-...