title: The pharmacophore of short cationic antibacterial peptides.
abstract: Cationic antibacterial peptides have been proclaimed as new drugs against multiresistant bacteria. Their limited success so far is partially due to the size of the peptides, which gives rise to unresolved issues regarding administration, bioavailability, metabolic stability, and immunogenicity. We have systematically investigated the minimum antibacterial motif of cationic antibacterial peptides regarding charge and lipophilicity/bulk and found that the pharmacophore was surprisingly small, opening the opportunity for development of short antibacterial peptides for systemic use.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Morten B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Strøm
authors.forename: Bengt Erik
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Haug
authors.forename: Merete L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Skar
authors.forename: Wenche
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Stensen
authors.forename: Trine
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Stiberg
authors.forename: John S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Svendsen
mesh_terms: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000633:toxicity; D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects; D006461:Hemolysis; D006801:Humans; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000633:toxicity; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000187:drug effects; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D010446:Peptide Fragments