title: Sequence requirements and an optimization strategy for short antimicrobial peptides.
abstract: Short antimicrobial host-defense peptides represent a possible alternative as lead structures to fight antibiotic resistant bacterial infections. Bac2A is a 12-mer linear variant of the naturally occurring bovine host defense peptide, bactenecin, and demonstrates moderate, broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria as well as against the yeast Candida albicans. With the assistance of a method involving peptide synthesis on a cellulose support, the primary sequence requirements for antimicrobial activity against the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa of 277 Bac2A variants were investigated by using a luciferase-based assay. Sequence scrambling of Bac2A led to activities ranging from superior or equivalent to Bac2A to inactive, indicating that good activity was not solely dependent on the composition of amino acids or the overall charge or hydrophobicity, but rather required particular linear sequence patterns. A QSAR computational analysis was applied to analyze the data resulting in a model that supported this sequence pattern hypothesis. The activity of selected peptides was confirmed by conventional minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) analyses with a panel of human pathogen bacteria and fungi. Circular-dichroism (CD) spectroscopy with selected peptides in liposomes and membrane depolarization assays were consistent with a relationship between structure and activity. An additional optimization process was performed involving systematic amino acid substitutions of one of the optimal scrambled peptide variants, resulting in superior active peptide variants. This process provides a cost and time effective enrichment of new candidates for drug development, increasing the chances of finding pharmacologically relevant peptides.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Microbial Diseases and Immunity Research, University of British Columbia, #2259 Lower Mall Research Station, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z3, Canada.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hilpert
authors.forename: Melissa R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Elliott
authors.forename: Rudolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Volkmer-Engert
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Henklein
authors.forename: Oreola
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Donini
authors.forename: Qun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Dirk F H
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Winkler
authors.forename: Robert E W
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Hancock
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D003198:Computer Simulation; D015195:Drug Design; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000187:drug effects; D021281:Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides