Design and surface immobilization of short anti-biofilm peptides.

ABSTRACT: Short antimicrobial peptides are essential to keep us healthy and their lasting potency can inspire the design of new types of antibiotics. This study reports the design of a family of eight-residue tryptophan-rich peptides (TetraF2W) obtained by converting the four phenylalanines in temporin-SHf to tryptophans. The temporin-SHf template was identified from the antimicrobial peptide database (http://aps.unmc.edu/AP). Remarkably, the double arginine variant (TetraF2W-RR) was more effective in killing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) USA300, but less cytotoxic to human skin HaCat and kidney HEK293 cells, than the lysine-containing dibasic combinations (KR, RK and KK). Killing kinetics and fluorescence spectroscopy suggest membrane targeting of TetraF2W-RR, making it more di

SUBMITTER: Mishra B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5253077 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature