Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Design of antimicrobial and cytolytic peptides by computational analysis of bacterial, algal, and invertebrate proteomes

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Amino Acids Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The increase of antibiotic resistance in bacterial species has raised the need to search for novel antimicrobial molecules. Antimicrobial peptides are molecules that commonly display an amphipathic character. In this work, we developed a computational strategy to search for new peptide sequences within the proteome of any organism that includes in-house developed software and the use of artificial intelligence tools available online. Eleven peptides were selected after analyzing 63,343 proteins from the proteomes of bacteria, algae and invertebrates. Then, we validated the results by means of several assays which were carried out against five (5) pathogenic bacterial species and two (2) cancer cell lines. As a result, we found that ten of the peptides were antimicrobial, with minimum inhibitory concentration values between 4 and \(64\,\upmu \hbox {M}\). Furthermore, two of the more active peptides were also cytotoxic to human red blood cells and cancer cells. In general, the antimicrobial peptides we discovered produced damage on the bacterial cell membrane that included membrane wrinkling, cell blebbing, and leakage of cytoplasmic material. Based on these results, we concluded that the computational approach proposed for finding sequences encrypted in proteins is appropriate for the discovery of selective and non-selective antimicrobial and anticancer peptides.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Sede Medellin, HERMES research Grants Numbers 39323 and 35058.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alberto M. Ceballos-Arroyo.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest with the information contained in this manuscript.

Ethics approval

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee (Comité de Ética en Investigación - Universidad Nacional de Colombia).

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from the blood donor for being included in the study.

Additional information

Handling editor: M. S. Palma.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Duque-Salazar, G., Mendez-Otalvaro, E., Ceballos-Arroyo, A.M. et al. Design of antimicrobial and cytolytic peptides by computational analysis of bacterial, algal, and invertebrate proteomes. Amino Acids 52, 1403–1412 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-020-02900-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-020-02900-w

Keywords

Navigation