• BMB Reports
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.545-548
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• 1996

CA(1-8)ME(1-12), the CA-ME hybrid peptide of the amino terminal segments of cecropin A (CA) and melittin (ME), has been reported to have a broad spectrum and improved potency without a hemolytic property. In order to obtain new synthetic peptides with powerful antibacterial activity without hemolytic activity, several hybrid peptides were designed from the sequences of CA, ME, magainin 2, bombinin and lactoferricin. All hybrid peptides were constructed to form an amphipathically basic-flexible-hydrophobic structure and synthesized by the solid phase method. Their hemolytic activities against human red blood cells and antibacterial activities against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria were detennined. CA(1-8)MA(1-12), CA(1-8)BO(1-12), MA(10-17)ME(1-12) and LF(20-29)ME(1-12) showed comparable activities with broad spectra against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria relative to CA(1-8)ME(1-12) but without hemolytic properties. These hybrid peptides, therefore, could be useful as model peptides to design a novel peptide with improved antibacterial activity and study on structure-activity relationships of antimicrobial peptides.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.95-99
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• 2018

In insect defense system, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are one of important biological molecules to survive in a variety of environments. Insect can synthesize AMPs to protect against invading pathogens in humoral immune response. Taking more advantage of biological antimicrobial molecules, we report antibacterial activity of two cecropin type peptides, cecropin and moricin, isolated from the silkworm against four salmonella species. In this work, we purified antimicrobial candidate peptides (AMCP) from the extracts of immune challenged silkworm larval hemolymph by two-step chromatographic purification procedure, cation exchange and gel permeation chromatography. The molecular weights of purified peptides were estimated to be about 4 ~ 5 kDa by Tricin SDS-PAGE analysis, and identified as silkworm cecropin and moricin by NCBI BLAST homology search with their N-terminal amino acid sequences. As antibacterial activity assay, the purified peptides showed stronger antibacterial activity against Salmonella pathogens with an MIC value of $1{\sim}4{\mu}g/mL$. Therefore two cecropin type peptides purified from the silkworm will be valuable potential materials for development of new natural antibiotics.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.457-462
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• 1997

Antibacterial activity was induced in the haemolymph of the common cutworm, Spodoptera litura by the artificial injection of E, coli Ek132. Antibacterial peptides were purified from the immunized haemolymph by heat treatment, ion-exchange chromatography, gel filtration chromatography, and reverse phase FPLC, and their physicochemical characteristics were investigated. These purified antibacterial peptides designated as spodopsin la and Ib were named after Spodoptera litura. Spodopsin la and Ib had the apparent molecular masses of 3, 823 Da and 3, 886 Da, respectively, and about 20% of the sequences had basic amino acids, such as lysine and arginine but no cysteine. Also, spodopsin l was confirmed to be a new member of cecropin family having a similar amino acid sequence to cecropin of lepidopteran insects, such as Bombyx mori and Hyalophora cecropia. The purified spodopsin was active against gram-positive as well as gram-negative bacteria.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1707-1716
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• 2019

The development of new antimicrobial agents is essential for the effective treatment of diseases such as sepsis. We previously developed a new short peptide, Pap12-6, using the 12 N-terminal residues of papiliocin, which showed potent and effective antimicrobial activity against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Here, we investigated the antimicrobial mechanism of Pap12-6 and a newly designed peptide, Pap12-7, in which the 12^th Trp residue of Pap12-6 was replaced with Val to develop a potent peptide with high bacterial selectivity and a different antibacterial mechanism. Both peptides showed high antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative bacteria, including multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. In addition, the two peptides showed similar anti-inflammatory activity against lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells, but Pap12-7 showed very low toxicities against sheep red blood cells and mammalian cells compared to that showed by Pap12-6. A calcein dye leakage assay, membrane depolarization, and confocal microscopy observations revealed that the two peptides with one single amino acid change have different mechanisms of antibacterial action: Pap12-6 directly targets the bacterial cell membrane, whereas Pap12-7 appears to penetrate the bacterial cell membrane and exert its activities in the cell. The therapeutic efficacy of Pap12-7 was further examined in a mouse model of sepsis, which increased the survival rate of septic mice. For the first time, we showed that both peptides showed anti-septic activity by reducing the infiltration of neutrophils and the production of inflammatory factors. Overall, these results indicate Pap12-7 as a novel non-toxic peptide with potent antibacterial and anti-septic activities via penetrating the cell membrane.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.36-50
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• 2021

This study aimed to evaluate the biological potential of functional food, i.e., specific peptides obtained from the hydrolysis of milk protein, by assessing their antioxidant and antibacterial properties. For the preparation of casein hydrolysates, commercial enzymes were added to 10% casein solution in a 1:200 (w/v) ratio, and samples were collected each hour. Based on the assessment of the degree of hydrolysis (DH) of casein hydrolysates, it was observed that the concentration of all enzymatic hydrolysates increased rapidly from 30 to 40 minutes. However, no change was observed in their concentrations after 150 minutes. Protamex® and Neutrase® exhibited the highest DH when compared to other enzymes. Furthermore, SDS-PAGE was performed for analyzing the proteolytic pattern of each enzyme, except for Flavourzyme®, and peptides in the size range of 20-25 kDa were identified. Subsequently, peptides produced by two enzymes were isolated using a preparative liquid chromatography system. Overall, NF3, NF4, PF5, and PF6 showed higher antioxidant potential than other peptide fractions. Moreover, NF7 and PF3 exhibited the highest antibacterial activity. In this study, we evaluated the biological potential of novel casein-derived peptides that may find application in the food and healthcare industry.

• BMB Reports
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.536-541
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• 1998

The cDNA clone encoding the antibacterial peptide (SL-1) was isolated from the fat body of the common cutworm, Spodoptera litura, immunized with E. coli K12. The primary structure analysis revealed that its deduced amino acid sequence showed the characteristics of the cecropin family antibacterial peptides and that the amino acid residues highly conserved in the antibacterial peptides from moths and flies were also conserved, implying that SL-1 was a cecropin-like, and especially cecropin B-like, peptide. The predicted secondary structure of the mature SL-1 consists of three domains: (i) an amphiphilic ${\alpha}$-helical domain (Ile-4 to Gly-18); (ii) the hinge region (Gly-23 and Pro-24); and (iii) a hydrophobic domain (Ala-25 to IIe-38).

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.96-107
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• 2009

Lactophoricin (LPcin-I) is a cationic amphipathic peptide with 23-mer peptide, and corresponds to the carboxy terminal 113-135 region of Component-3 of proteose-peptone. LPcin-I is a good candidate as a peptide antibiotic, because it has an antibacterial activity, but no hemolytic activity. On the other hand, its shorter analog (LPcin-II), which corresponds to the 119-135 region of PP3, has no antibacterial activity. In order to understand the structure-activity relationship under the membrane environments, we succeed to produce large amounts of LPcin-I and LPcin-II peptides. Peptides were over expressed in the form of fusion protein in Escherichia coli, and purified with several chromatography techniques. In this paper, we introduce the optimizing processes of purification and NMR measurement.

• BMB Reports
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.291-296
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• 2002

Thanatin, a 21-residue peptide, is an inducible insect peptide with a broad range of activity against bacteria and fungi. It has a C-terminal disulfide loop, like the frog skin secretion antimicrobial peptides of the brevinin family. In this study, we tried to find the effect of a number of amino acids between the disulfide bond. Thanatin showed stronger antibacterial activity to Gram negative bacteria than other mutants, except Th1; whereas, the mutant peptides with deletion had higher activity to Gram positive bacteria than thanatin. An increase in the number of amino acid(s) using the alanine residue decreased the antibacterial activity in all of the bacteria. Th1 with deletion of threonine at position 15 ($Thr^{15}$) showed similar antibacterial activity against Gram-negative bacteria, but had higher activity against the Gram positive bacteria. In order to study the structure-function relationship, we measured liposome disruption by the peptides and CD spectra of the peptides. Th1 also showed the highest liposome leaking activity and α-helical propensity in the sodium dodecyl sulfate solution, compared with other peptides. Liposome disruption activity was closely correlated with the anti-Gram positive bacterial activity. All of the peptides showed no hemolytic activity. Th1 was considered to be useful as an antimicrobial peptide with broad spectrum without toxicity.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2012

There are many cyclic peptides with diverse biological activities, such as antibacterial activity, immunosuppressive activity, and anti-tumor activity, and so on. Encouraged by natural cyclic peptides with biological activity, efforts have been made to develop cyclic peptides with both genetic and synthetic methods. The genetic methods include phage display, intein-based cyclic peptides, and mRNA display. The synthetic methods involve individual synthesis, parallel synthesis, as well as split-and-pool synthesis. Recent development of cyclic peptide library based on split-and-pool synthesis allows on-bead screening, in-solution screening, and microarray screening of cyclic peptides for biological activity. Cyclic peptides will be useful as receptor agonist/antagonist, RNA binding molecule, enzyme inhibitor and so on, and more cyclic peptides will emerge as therapeutic agents and biochemical tools.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.52-58
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• 1994

The induced antibiotic peptides were isolatde from the white-spotted folwer chafer, Protaetia brevitarsis by injection of E. coli suspension to the larvae of the insect. The antibacterial activity of the peptides were assayed by the plate growth ingibition method, and were purified by ion-exchange chromatography, reversed-phase HPLC, ion-exchange HPLC and SDS-PAGE etc. The peptides were estimated as 9 kDa in molecular weight and named Protaecin I and Protaecin II, respectively. Protaecin I and II have strong antibacterial activities against Gram-positivie and/or Gram-negative bacteria, and they are stable in the heat treatment and in the range of pH 2-12.