title: Antimicrobial peptide from the skin secretion of the frog Leptodactylus syphax.
abstract: Antimicrobial peptides are considered part of the innate immune system of the majority of living organisms. Most of these molecules are small, cationic and show amphiphilic nature. The skin secretions of Leptodactylus syphax were extracted by mild electrical stimulation and its semipreparative reverse-phase chromatography was resolved in more than 40 fractions. Among these fractions, an antimicrobial peptide was isolated and its amino acid sequence determined by de novo sequencing. Six other truncated forms were characterized in skin secretion. The longest one (25 amino acid residues), named syphaxin (SPX), is amidated at the C-terminal, and shares strong sequence similarity with antimicrobial peptides found in the skin secretion of leptodactylid frogs. Two of the truncated peptides (SPX(1-22) and SPX(1-16)) were tested against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, showing low minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and no significant toxicity towards blood cells, including both leukocytes and erythrocytes, based on their direct incubation in whole blood at the highest MIC concentration (64 microg/mL).
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Toxinologia, Departamento de Ciências Fisiológicas, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade de Brasília, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, Brasília, DF 70910-900, Brazil.
authors.forename: Flávio S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Dourado
authors.forename: José Roberto S A
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Leite
authors.forename: Luciano P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Jorge A T
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Melo
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bloch
authors.forename: Elisabeth F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Schwartz
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology; D001001:Anura / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides