Human antimicrobial peptides and proteins.

ABSTRACT: As the key components of innate immunity, human host defense antimicrobial peptides and proteins (AMPs) play a critical role in warding off invading microbial pathogens. In addition, AMPs can possess other biological functions such as apoptosis, wound healing, and immune modulation. This article provides an overview on the identification, activity, 3D structure, and mechanism of action of human AMPs selected from the antimicrobial peptide database. Over 100 such peptides have been identified from a variety of tissues and epithelial surfaces, including skin, eyes, ears, mouths, gut, immune, nervous and urinary systems. These peptides vary from 10 to 150 amino acids with a net charge between -3 and +20 and a hydrophobic content below 60%. The sequence diversity enables human AMPs to adopt va

SUBMITTER: Wang G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4035769 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature