Antimicrobial activity of the indolicidin‐derived novel synthetic peptide In‐58

Abstract

Natural peptides with antimicrobial activity are extremely diverse, and peptide synthesis technologies make it possible to significantly improve their properties for specific tasks. Here, we investigate the biological properties of the natural peptide indolicidin and the indolicidin-derived novel synthetic peptide In-58. In-58 was generated by replacing all tryptophan residues on phenylalanine in D-configuration; the α-amino group in the main chain also was modified by unsaturated fatty acid. Compared with indolicidin, In-58 is more bactericidal, more resistant to proteinase K, and less toxic to mammalian cells. Using molecular physics approaches, we characterized the action of In-58 on bacterial cells at the cellular level. Also, we have found that studied peptides damage bacterial membranes. Using the Escherichia coli luminescent biosensor strain MG1655 (pcolD'::lux), we investigated the action of indolicidin and In-58 at the subcellular level. At subinhibitory concentrations, indolicidin and In-58 induced an SOS response. Our data suggest that indolicidin damages the DNA, but bacterial membrane perturbation is its principal mode of action. Copyright © 2017 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sub-inhibitory Effects of Antimicrobial Peptides

“…During this process, peptide’s action increases the expression of the α-haemolysin (Gottschalk et al, 2015). A similar effect was shown for indolicidin, which disturbed a membrane at MIC and induced the SOS-response at sub-MIC (Vasilchenko et al, 2017). The direct mutagenic effect of the cationic peptide is known (Limoli et al, 2014).…”

Genotoxic effect of 2,2’-bis(bicyclo[2.2.1] heptane) on bacterial cells

“…The cells of E. coli K12 strain MG1655 F -ilvG rfb-50 rph-1 (obtained from VKPM collection) were combined with plasmids pAlkA-lux, pColD-lux, pOxyR-lux and pSoxS-lux [10,11,[15][16][17] that were built using a promoterless plasmid backbone pDEW201 [8]. pAlkA-lux carries PalkA, sensitive to DNA alkylation in cell.…”

A Novel Lipopeptaibol Emericellipsin A with Antimicrobial and Antitumor Activity Produced by the Extremophilic Fungus Emericellopsis alkalina

“…Earlier we successfully performed this approach for investigation of mode of action of the various antimicrobial peptides [ 25 ]. We showed that this effect is really occurred when PI was able to influx into the cells via a disordered barrier following displacement of the SYTO9 from the DNA [ 26 ].…”