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The specificity of protection against cationic antimicrobial peptides by lactoferrin binding protein B

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Abstract

A variety of Gram-negative pathogens possess host-specific lactoferrin (Lf) receptors that mediate the acquisition of iron from host Lf. The integral membrane protein component of the receptor, lactoferrin binding protein A specifically binds host Lf and is required for acquisition of iron from Lf. In contrast, the role of the bi-lobed surface lipoprotein, lactoferrin binding protein B (LbpB), in Lf binding and iron acquisition is uncertain. A common feature of LbpBs from most species is the presence of clusters of negatively charged amino acids in the protein’s C-terminal lobe. Recently it has been shown that the negatively charged regions from the Neisseria meningitidis LbpB are responsible for protecting against an 11 amino acid cationic antimicrobial peptide (CAP), lactoferricin (Lfcin), derived from human Lf. In this study we investigated whether the LbpB confers resistance to other CAPs since N. meningitidis is likely to encounter other CAPs from the host. LbpB provided protection against the cathelicidin derived peptide, cathelicidin related antimicrobial peptide (mCRAMP), but did not confer protection against Tritrp 1 or LL37 under our experimental conditions. When tested against a range of rationally designed synthetic peptides, LbpB was shown to protect against IDR-1002 and IDR-0018 but not against HH-2 or HHC10.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Alberta Innovates-Health Solutions Interdisciplinary Team in Vaccine Design and Implementation (No. 200700591) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MOP 130273). We would like to thank Robert E W Hancock for generous provision of the peptides LL37, mCRAMP, IDR-1002, IDR-1018, HH-2 and HHC10. We would also like to thank Hans Vogel for generous provision of the peptides mCRAMP and Tritrp 1.

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  1. Departments of Microbiology, Immunology & Infectious Diseases and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 4N1, Canada

    Ari Morgenthau, Sarathy K. Partha, Paul Adamiak & Anthony B. Schryvers

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  1. Ari Morgenthau
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  2. Sarathy K. Partha
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  3. Paul Adamiak
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Correspondence to Anthony B. Schryvers.

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Morgenthau, A., Partha, S.K., Adamiak, P. et al. The specificity of protection against cationic antimicrobial peptides by lactoferrin binding protein B. Biometals 27, 923–933 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-014-9767-y

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