title: Design of antimicrobial compounds based on peptide structures.
abstract: New antimicrobial compounds are of major importance because of the growing problem of bacterial resistance and antimicrobial peptides have been gaining a lot of interest. Their mechanism of action, however, is often obscure. Here a set of non-peptidic compounds with antimicrobial activity are presented that have been designed based on criteria derived from three-dimensional structures of antimicrobial peptides. Even though only a small set of compounds has been designed, the activity immediately matches that of the original peptides, supporting the proposed criteria for activity, i.e. not the peptidic nature of antimicrobial peptides is responsible for their activity but rather the proper arrangement of the relevant functional groups.
authors.affiliation: Leibnizinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP), Robert-Rössle-Strasse 10, D-13125 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Appelt
authors.forename: Anna K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Schrey
authors.forename: J Arvid
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Söderhäll
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schmieder
mesh_terms: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects; D015195:Drug Design; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D009842:Oligopeptides; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic