Shorter Antibacterial Peptide Having High Selectivity for E. coli Membranes and Low Potential for Inducing Resistance

Abstract

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been recognised as a significant therapeutic option for mitigating resistant microbial infections. It has been found recently that Plasmodium falciparum-derived, 20 residue long, peptide 35409 had antibacterial and haemolytic activity, making it an AMP having reduced selectivity, and suggesting that it should be studied more extensively for obtaining new AMPs having activity solely targeting the bacterial membrane. Peptide 35409 was thus used as template for producing short synthetic peptides (<20 residues long) and evaluating their biological activity and relevant physicochemical characteristics for therapeutic use. Four of the sixteen short peptides evaluated here had activity against E. coli without any associated haemolytic effects. The 35409-1 derivative (17 residues long) had the best therapeutic characteristics as it had high selectivity for bacterial cells, stability in the presence of human sera, activity against E. coli multiresistant clinical isolates and was shorter than the original sequence. It had a powerful membranolytic effect and low potential for inducing resistance in bacteria. This peptide’s characteristics highlighted its potential as an alternative for combating infection caused by E. coli multiresistant bacteria and/or for designing new AMPs.

Evaluation of the antibacterial effects and mechanism of Plantaricin 149 from Lactobacillus plantarum NRIC 149 on the peri-implantitis pathogens

“…Lactobacillus plantarum is a probiotic that can produce organic acid, hydrogen peroxide, and diacetyl; it can also produce a small molecular protein with bacteriostatic activity, called bacteriocin 5 . Compared with traditional antibiotics, the antibacterial peptides have more advantages, such as no residues, no resistance, and easy protease degradation in the human gut, and have become a new option for treating infectious diseases 6 . Plantaricin 149 (Pln149), is a cationic antimicrobial peptide produced by Lactobacillus plantarum NRIC 149 that has been identified as a bacteriocin with a molecule weight of 2.2 kDa and was also heat-stable and active at pHs ranging from 4.0–7.0.…”

A Novel Antimicrobial Peptide Derived from Bony Fish IFN1 Exerts Potent Antimicrobial and Anti-Inflammatory Activity in Mammals

“…Although a high number of AMPs have strong bactericidal effect in vitro , most of them lack effective antibacterial activity in vivo due to the complexity of animal internal environment ( 31 ). In this study, we confirmed that gcIFN-20 not only exerts potent antimicrobial ability in vitro , but also has an efficient therapeutic effect on two clinical isolates of ExPEC (PCN033 and RS218) in vivo .…”

Manufacturing of Plant-Based Bioactive Peptides Using Enzymatic Methods to Meet Health and Sustainability Targets of the Sustainable Development Goals

“…These biopeptides can form channels and/or pores on the surface of microbial membranes, leading to membrane disruption and even cell division (Yadavalli et al, 2016;Toldrá et al, 2018). The mechanism of antimicrobial activity of biopeptides was reported by Fjell et al (2012), Barreto-Santamaría et al (2020), andLi et al (2021). Firstly, these biopeptides interact with oppositely charged groups on microbes' membrane surfaces.…”