Symbiotic plant peptides eliminate Candida albicans both in vitro and in an epithelial infection model and inhibit the proliferation of immortalized human cells.

ABSTRACT: The increasing number of multidrug-resistant microbes now emerging necessitates the identification of novel antimicrobial agents. Plants produce a great variety of antimicrobial peptides including hundreds of small, nodule-specific cysteine-rich NCR peptides that, in the legume Medicago truncatula, govern the differentiation of endosymbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria and, in vitro, can display potent antibacterial activities. In this study, the potential candidacidal activity of 19 NCR peptides was investigated. Cationic NCR peptides having an isoelectric point above 9 were efficient in killing Candida albicans, one of the most common fungal pathogens of humans. None of the tested NCR peptides were toxic for immortalized human epithelial cells at concentrations that effectively killed the f

SUBMITTER: Ordogh L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4163382 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature