• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.429-432
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• 2012

According to the requirement of novel antimicrobial agents for the rapidly increasing emergence of multi-drug resistant pathogenic microbes, a number of researchers have found new antibiotics to overcome this resistance. Among them, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are host defense molecules found in a wide variety of invertebrate, plant, and animal species, and are promising to new antimicrobial candidates in pharmatherapeutic fields. Therefore, this review introduces the antimicrobial action of antimicrobial peptide and ongoing development as a pharmetherapeutic agent.

• 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.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.395-400
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• 2013

The hydration and antimicrobial peptide effects on the lipid alignment on the surface of a thin glass plate were investigated by using the solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Pure 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphotidylcholine (POPC) lipid molecules were well aligned on the surface of a thin glass plate without direct hydration by placing the sample for a few days in the desiccator containing a saturated sodium phosphate dibasic solution, which provided 95% relative humidity. But there was a big difference between two lipid phases, the one of which was hydrated by placing the sample for a few days in the desiccator with 95% relative humidity without direct hydration and the other was directly hydrated by dropping water and then placed for a few days in the same desiccator. The surface mobility of POPC molecules in a lipid bilayer phase was much activated by water. While the time for the POPC to align on the glass plate surface was short, the time for the PG-1/POPC mixture to reach the its equilibrium state was long.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.183-191
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• 2010

The phase changes of 1-palmitoyl-$d_{31}$-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine (POPC_$d_{31}$) bilayers distorted by an antimicrobial peptide, a magainin 2 or an aurein 3.3 were investigated by using $^2H$ solid-state NMR (SSNMR) spectroscopy. From the theoretical simulation of the experimental $^2H$ solid-state NMR spectra the geometric structure constants and the lateral diffusion coefficients were obtained in the peptide-lipid mixture phases. Within five days of the peptide action on the lipid bilayers only the distorted alignment of the bilayers were measured but after 100 days an elliptic toroidal pore structure and an inverted hexagonal phase were formed in the presence of magainin 2 and aurein 3.3, respectively. In order to investigate the effect of an anionic lipid molecule on the actions of two peptides on the lipid bilayer, the same experiments were performed on the POPC_$d_{31}$/1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylglycerol (POPG) bilayer and the significant differences in the actions of two peptides on two bilayers of POPC_$d_{31}$ and POPC_$d_{31}$/POPG were measured.

• 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.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.460-466
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• 2011

The activity of an antimicrobial peptide, magainin 2, on lipid membranes was investigated using solid-state NMR and a new sampling method that employed mechanically aligned bilayers between thin glass plates. The experiments were performed at two hydration levels. At 95% hydration about 15% of the lipid bilayers were disrupted and at full hydration 20% were disrupted. From the comparison of two equilibrium states established by two sampling methods the importance of peptide binding to the lipid bilayer for whole membrane disruption was demonstrated.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.106-111
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• 2015

Changes in antimicrobial peptide-lipid mixtures were investigated using ³¹P solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. An antimicrobial peptide, protegrin-1, and phosphatidylcholine were deposited on a thin cover glass and incubated under a relative humidity of 95%. The changes in the mixtures were observed after hydration or air-drying. How repetitive hydration and drying changed the phase of the sample was also observed. The degrees of disruption of the well-aligned bilayers of phosphatidylcholine were determined quantitatively by simulating the experimental spectra. The peptide-lipid mixtures changed reversibly after hydration and drying, and the samples reached an equilibrium state after several repetitions.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.50-56
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• 2017

An antibacterial peptide was purified from an acidified gill extract of the pufferfish Takifugu pardalis. The acidified gill extract was put through a Sep-Pak C18 solid phase extraction cartridge using a stepwise gradient and divided into a flow-through (F.T.) and 60% methanol fraction (RM 60). Among the eluents, RM 60 had potent antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis KCTC 1021. RM 60 was partially purified on a cationic-exchange column (SP-5PW) by a linear gradient, and the antibacterial peptide was then further purified, using a series of cationic-exchange and $C_{18}$ reversed-phase HPLC columns. For characterization of the purified peptide, its molecular weight and amino acid sequence were analyzed by MALDI-TOF MS and Edman degradation. The molecular weight of the peptide was about 1171.6 Da. The amino acid sequence of the peptide was partially determined as: STKEKAPRKQ. A comparison of the N-terminal amino acid sequence of the purified peptide with that of other known polypeptides revealed high homology with the N-terminus of the histone H3 protein, which belongs to the histone H3 family. Thus, this peptide was designated as a puffer fish gill (PFG)-related antimicrobial peptide. This is the report to describe an antimicrobial function for the N-terminus of histone H3 of an animal species. The findings suggest that this peptide plays a significant role in the innate defense system of the pufferfish.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.55-60
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• 2015

Melittin is the main component of Bee Venom and has antibacterial activity against several bacteria. To produce the melittin antimicrobial peptide, we constructed transgenic silkworm that expressed melittin gene under the control BmA3 promoter using piggyBac vector. The use of the 3xP3-driven EGFP cDNA as a marker allowed us to rapidly distinguish transgenic silkworm. Mixtures of the donor vector and helper vector were micro-injected into 300 eggs of bivoltin silkworms, Baegokjam. In total, 131 larvae (G0) were hatched and allowed to develop into moths. The resulting G1 generation consisted of 36 broods, and we selected 4 broods containing at least 1 EGFP-positive embryo. The rate of successful transgenesis for the G1 broods was 11%. We identified 12 EGFP-positive G1 moths and these were backcrossed with wild-type moths. With the aim of identifying a melittin as antimicrobial peptide, we investigated the Radical diffusion Assay (RDA) and then demonstrated that melittin possesses high antibacterial activities against gramnegative bacteria.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.493-499
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• 2024

Antimicrobial peptides are antimicrobial substances inherent in animals and plants, with strong antibacterial activity even in small amounts and with various other functions such as antiviral and antioxidant actions. Plants can be grown with just water and sunlight, allowing for their mass production at low costs. However, transforming a chloroplast into one that produces antimicrobial peptides, rather than growing plants, increases the amount of protein expression and minimizes contamination of the ecosystem because gene transfer by pollen does not occur. In that context, using transgenic plant chloroplasts to produce recombinant proteins increases protein degradation and reduces the solubility of proteins. To solve this problem, we fused SUMO, a fusion protein, with a recombinant protein. We also used a 6xHis tag to purify the fusion protein. The antimicrobial peptide stomoxyn is an antibacterial substance found in stable flies. Stomoxyn has an α-helix structure and is amphiphilic, which allows it to dissolve bacterial cell membranes. In this study, we constructed a transformation vector to express stomoxyn in both plant chloroplasts and Escherichia coli and used this vector to confirm the expression of stomoxyn in E. coli. The expression of the protein was then confirmed in E. coli using a transformation vector. The expressed stomoxyn was purified by nickel column and SUMOase treatment, and its antibacterial activity was confirmed using an agar diffusion assay. The EGFP gene was used to ensure that the transformed vector was inserted into the chloroplast.