title: Degradation of naturally occurring and engineered antimicrobial peptides by proteases.
abstract: We hypothesized that current antimicrobial peptides should be susceptible to proteolytic digestion. The antimicrobial peptides: Griffithinsin, RC-101, LL-37, LSA-5, PSC-RANTES and DJ007 were degraded by commercially available proteases. Two different species of anaerobic vaginal flora, Prevotella bivia and Porphyromonas asaccharolytica also degraded the materials. Griffithsin was resistant to digestion by 8 of the 9 proteases and the bacteria while LL-37 was the most sensitive to protease digestion. These data suggests most of the molecules may not survive for very long in the proteolytic rich environments in which they are intended to function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA.
authors.forename: Bernard J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Moncla
authors.forename: Kara
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pryke
authors.forename: Lisa Cencia
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Rohan
authors.forename: Phillip W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Graebing