• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.715-723
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• 2015

Insects represent the largest class within the animal kingdom in terms of species number. Humans had been utilized insect in the broad area, including food, agriculture, industry, pharmaceuticals and so on. At present, insects are emerging as a leading group for identifying and extracting novel bioactive substances due to enormous number and a high nutritional value. Insects rely on a suite of systemic response to resist infection such as immune cells, hemocytes, activation of enzymes cascades, and antimicrobial peptide/protein. Among the substances, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are main components of potent antimircrobial innate defense system into the insect hemolymph. AMPs raise influential candidate as avenue to resolve the development of antibiotic-resistant microbial organism. Insect AMPs are classified into four main classes: cecropins, insect defensins, glycine/proline-rich peptides. Insect AMPs have been purified, over 150. In this review, AMPs derived from several insects were summarized including honey bee, dung beetle, butterfly and longicorn beetle. These peptides almost exhibited potent antimicrobial activities against human microbial pathogens without causing remarkable hemolysis to erythrocytes excluding melittin, and their mode of action(s) are based on disruption of the plasma membrane or fungal apoptosis. Therefore, study of insect AMPs is expected to be useful for designing novel therapeutic antimicrobial applications.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.83-89
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• 2021

Uu-ilys, an i-type lysozyme from spoon worm (Urechis unicinctus), is an innate immune factor that plays an important role in the defense against pathogens. It also possesses non-enzymatic antibacterial activity. Thus, there is a possibility to develop an antimicrobial model peptide from Uu-ilys. In this study, we report the design, production, and antibacterial activity of an Uu-ilys analog that exhibits antibacterial activity. The Uu-ilys structure was fragmented according to its secondary structures to predict the regions with antimicrobial activity using antimicrobial peptide (AMP) prediction tools from different AMP databases. A peptide containing the C-terminal fragment was predicted to exert antimicrobial activity. The chosen fragment was designated as an Uu-ilys analog containing the C-terminal fragment, Uu-ilys-CF. To examine the possibility of developing an AMP using the sequence of Uu-ilys-CF, recombinant fusion protein (TrxA-Uu-ilys-CF) was produced in an expression system that was heterologous. The produced fusion protein was cleaved after methionine leaving Uu-ilys-CF free from the fusion protein. This was then isolated through high performance liquid chromatography and reverse phase column, CapCell-Pak C18. The antibacterial activity of Uu-ilys-CF against different microbial strains (four gram-positive, six gram-negative, and one fungal strain) were assessed through the ultrasensitive radial diffusion assay (URDA). Among the bacterial strains tested, Salmonella enterica was the most susceptible. While the fungal strain tested was not susceptible to Uu-ilys-CF, broad spectrum antibacterial activity was observed.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.1568-1576
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• 2021

Here, we conducted the study on the possibility of using FK-13, a short analog of human-derived antibacterial peptide LL-37, as a cosmetic preservative to discover a natural cosmetic preservative that is safe for human body. For the purpose, FK-13 composed of 13 amino acids was synthesized by solid-phase peptide synthesis, and purified using reversed phase-high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). The purity and molecular weight were confirmed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis. FK-13 showed high antimicrobial activity on the three gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, and Staphylococcus epidermidis), the three gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa), and also even the fungus Candida glabrata. FK-13 had a broad spectrum of antibacterial activity, showing a suitability as a cosmetic preservative. In addition, FK-13 showed high thermostability and higher antibacterial activity in a comparative test with existing natural herbal cosmetic and chemical preservatives. Therefore, as FK-13 is a safe material and has high antibacterial activity at a low concentration, it is likely to be applied as a peptide natural cosmetic preservative that can replace existing chemical preservatives.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2013

The activity of an antimicrobial peptide, protegrin-1, on the well-aligned lipid bilayer deposited on a thin coverglass plate was investigated by $^2H$ solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Orientational distribution and molecular motion in the lipid bilayer were determined from $^2H$ solid-state NMR spectrum. Reorientational motion of lipid molecules in the vacuum-dried state was found to be small but their orientational distribution was not able to be determined. As storage times were longer, the order of the alignment of lipid molecules in the lipid bilayer and percentages involved in the toroidal pore structures increased. We found that much longer time is required to get the equilibrium state of the peptide-lipid mixture under our experimental condition for investigating the action of the antimicrobial peptide like protegrin-1 on the lipid bilayers deposited on the thin coverglass plates.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.25-29
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• 2006

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) play an important role in this response by rapidly killing invading microorganisms. In this study antimicrobial peptide has been isolated from acidified whole body extract of a bivalve mollusk, the marine mussel (Mytilus coruscus). This peptide purified to homogeneity by gel-filtration and reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography. The molecular weight was 1464.92 Da, determined by MALDI-TOF Mass spectrometry. In addition to growth inhibition of Escherichia coli D31.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.296-301
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• 2016

An antibacterial peptide from skin extract of the catfish Silurus asotus was purified and characterized. The acidified skin extract was put through a Sep-Pak C18 solid phase extraction cartridge using a stepwise gradient and divided into flow-through (F.T.), 10% methanol-elute (RM10), 60% methanolelute (RM60), and 100% methanol-elute (RM100) fractions. RM10, RM60, and RM 100 showed antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli D31. On the other hand, the F.T. fraction did not show antimicrobial activity. Among the various fractions, RM 60 had the highest activity. RM 60 was partially purified on a cation exchange column (CM52) by a stepwise gradient. The ammonium acetate (pH 5.15) 0.02 M – 0.8 M fraction showed antimicrobial activity. Then an antimicrobial peptide was purified using a 0.6M fraction with strong antibacterial activity through a series of five C18 reversed-phase HPLC columns. For the characterization of the purified peptide, the molecular weight and amino acid sequence were analyzed by MALDI-TOF MS and Edman degradation. The molecular weight of this peptide was about 4182.1 [M+H]⁺. The amino acid sequence of this peptide was partially determined as follows: PALXXKARREAKVKF. These findings suggest that this peptide plays a significant role in the innate defense system of catfish skin.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.123-130
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• 2004

Apidaecin Ⅰb, an antimicrobial peptide isolated from lymph fluid of the honeybee (Apis mellifera), is a basic non-helical peptide composed of eighteen amino acid residues. In this study, we have investigated the algicidal effect of Apidaecin Ⅰb against harmful algae blooms (HABs) causative Alexandrium tamarense, Chattonella marina, Cochlodinium polykrikoides and Gymnodinium catenatum. The algicidal effect of Apidaecin Ⅰb showed in the concentration of 12.5 $\mu{g}/mL$ to 50$\mu{g}/mL$ against 4 HAB species and observed cell lysis or cell ecdysis by microscopy. Apidaecin Ⅰb reacted more sensitive to C. marina than A. tamarense, C. polykrikoides and G. catenatum. The algicidal study of Apidaecin Ⅰb against HABs will provides much insight into development of new algicidal substances.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.956-961
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• 2022

Plant Chloroplast have several advantages as an expression platform of biopharmaceuticals over conventional expression platforms such as mammalian cells, yeast and bacteria. First, plants do not serve as a host for mammalian infectious virus and have endotoxin like bacteria which can cause anaphylactic shock. In addition, high copy number of chloroplast genome allows for chloroplast transformants to reach the high level of expression of heterologous genes. Moreover, the integration of transgenes into specific region of chloroplast genomes makes chloroplast transformants unaffected by positional effect which can be frequently observed from nuclear transformants, resulting in loss of transgene expressions. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a kind of innate immunity which is found from bacteria to humans. Unlike conventional antibiotics, very less dosage of AMPs can have catastrophic effect on bacterial survival. Further, the repeated use of AMPs does not trigger the development of bacterial resistance. Moricin, one of the AMPs, was isolated from Bombyx mori, a silkworm moth. The C-terminal of moricin consists largely of basic amino acids, and the N-terminal has an α-helix structure. Moricin was chosen and expressed in a SUMO/SUMOase without leaving any unwanted amino acids which could potentially affect the anti-bacterial activity of the moricin. The transformation vector used in this study has already been created in this lab for the expression in both prokaryotic systems such as E. coli and chloroplast. The expressed moricin was purified using Ni columns and SUMOase, and the antibacterial activity of the purified moricin was confirmed using an agar diffusion assay.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1259-1268
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• 2016

In this study, we investigated antimicrobial peptide from the acidified muscle extract of Mytilus coruscus, which mostly inhabits China, Japan, and Korea, to develop a natural product-derived antibiotics substitution in terms of its abuse and restriction. Antimicrobial peptide was purified by $C_{18}$ reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and was detected as having a molecular mass of 6,701 Da by MALDI-TOF/MS. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of the purified peak was obtained from edman degradation, and 20 identified residues shown 100% identity with the N-terminus region of sperm-specific protein and protamine-like PL-II/PL-IV precursor of Mytilus californianus. We also identified 60 open-reading frame (ORF) encoding amino acids with 183 bp of purified peptide based on the obtained amino acid residues. The amino acid sequence of ORF showed 100% and the nucleotide sequence revealed 97.2% identity with the protamine-like PL-II/PL-IV precursor of Mytilus californianus. Synthesized antimicrobial peptide showed antimicrobial activity against gram-positive bacteria, including Bacillus cereus (minimal effective concentration [MEC], $20.8{\mu}g/ml$), Bacillus subtilis (MEC, $0.2{\mu}g/ml$), Streptococcus mutans (MEC, $0.2{\mu}g/ml$), gram-negative bacteria including Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MEC, $5.7{\mu}g/ml$), Escherichia coli (MEC, $2.6{\mu}g/ml$) and fungi, Candida albicans (MEC, $56.3{\mu}g/ml$). In addition, synthesized peptide showed stable activities under heat and salt conditions against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, but was inhibited by salt against only C. albicans. With these results, isolated peptide from M. coruscus could be an alternative agent to antibiotics for defending against pathogenic microorganisms, and helpful information to understand the innate immune system of marine invertebrates.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.385-390
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• 2003

An antimicrobial peptide was purified from the roots of Phytolacca americana L. and was designated as PAMP-r. Purification was carried out by DEAE-cellulose anion exchange, sephadex G-75 gel filtration, Mono S cation exchange, and Resource RPC reverse phage chromatography. The molecular weight of PAMP-r was estimated to be about 4,900 Da by 15% SDS-PAGE under reducing condition. PAMP-r exhibited a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. PAMP-r was stable against heat and pH treatment; its activity was not diminished by the heat treatment up to $80^{\circ}C$ for 30 min, and it showed a pH stability in the range between pH 3.0 to pH 8.0.