title: Antimicrobial peptides of multicellular organisms.
abstract: Multicellular organisms live, by and large, harmoniously with microbes. The cornea of the eye of an animal is almost always free of signs of infection. The insect flourishes without lymphocytes or antibodies. A plant seed germinates successfully in the midst of soil microbes. How is this accomplished? Both animals and plants possess potent, broad-spectrum antimicrobial peptides, which they use to fend off a wide range of microbes, including bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoa. What sorts of molecules are they? How are they employed by animals in their defence? As our need for new antibiotics becomes more pressing, could we design anti-infective drugs based on the design principles these molecules teach us?
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia 19104-6059, USA. maz5@georgetown.edu
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zasloff
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D004194:Disease; D015195:Drug Design; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D007313:Insecta / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000502:physiology; D010944:Plants
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D010455:Peptides