Blapstin, a Diapause-Specific Peptide-Like Peptide from the Chinese Medicinal Beetle Blaps rhynchopetera, Has Antifungal Function.

ABSTRACT: Drug resistance against bacteria and fungi has become common in recent years, and it is urgent to discover novel antimicrobial peptides to manage this problem. Many antimicrobial peptides from insects have been reported to have antifungal activity and are candidate molecules in the treatment of human diseases. In the present study, we characterized an antifungal peptide named blapstin that was isolated from the Chinese medicinal beetle Blaps rhynchopetera used in folk medicine. The complete coding sequence was cloned from the cDNA library prepared from the midgut of B. rhynchopetera. It is a 41-amino-acid diapause-specific peptide (DSP)-like peptide stabilized by three disulfide bridges and shows antifungal activity against Candida albicans and Trichophyton rubrum with MICs of 7 μM

SUBMITTER: Zhang LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10269622 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature