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Comparison on effect of hydrophobicity on the antibacterial and antifungal activities of α-helical antimicrobial peptides

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Abstract

HPRP-A1, a 15-mer α-helical cationic peptide, was derived from N-terminus of ribosomal protein L1 (RpL1) of Helicobacter pylori. In this study, HPRP-A1 was used as a framework to obtain a series of peptide analogs with different hydrophobicity by single amino acid substitutions in the center of nonpolar face of the amphipathic helix in order to systematically study the effect of hydrophobicity on biological activities of α-helical antimicrobial peptides. Hydrophobicity and net charge of peptides played key roles in the biological activities of these peptide analogs; HPRP-A1 and peptide analogs with relative higher hydrophobicity exerted broad spectrum antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative bacteria, Gram-positive bacteria and pathogenic fungi, but also showed stronger hemolytic activity; the change of hydrophobicity and net charge of peptides had similar effects with close trend and extent on antibacterial activities and antifungal activities. This indicated that there were certain correlations between the antibacterial mode of action and the antifungal mode of action of these peptides in this study. The peptides exhibited antimicrobial specificity for bacteria and fungi, which provided potentials to develop new antimicrobial drugs for clinical practices.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Molecular Enzymology and Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China

    LianJing Zhao, YiBing Huang & YuXin Chen

  2. Department of Pathogenobiology, Norman Bethune College of Medicine, Jilin University Mycology Research Center, Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China

    Song Gao, Yan Cui, Dan He & Li Wang

Authors
  1. LianJing Zhao
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  2. YiBing Huang
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  3. Song Gao
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  4. Yan Cui
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  5. Dan He
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  6. Li Wang
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  7. YuXin Chen
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Correspondence to Li Wang or YuXin Chen.

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Zhao, L., Huang, Y., Gao, S. et al. Comparison on effect of hydrophobicity on the antibacterial and antifungal activities of α-helical antimicrobial peptides. Sci. China Chem. 56, 1307–1314 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-013-4884-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-013-4884-y

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