Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Silva ON
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7604428 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Silva Osmar N ON Torres Marcelo D T MDT Cao Jicong J Alves Elaine S F ESF Rodrigues Leticia V LV Resende Jarbas M JM Lião Luciano M LM Porto William F WF Fensterseifer Isabel C M ICM Lu Timothy K TK Franco Octavio L OL de la Fuente-Nunez Cesar C
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20201012 43
Novel antibiotics are urgently needed to combat multidrug-resistant pathogens. Venoms represent previously untapped sources of novel drugs. Here we repurposed mastoparan-L, the toxic active principle derived from the venom of the wasp <i>Vespula lewisii</i>, into synthetic antimicrobials. We engineered within its N terminus a motif conserved among natural peptides with potent immunomodulatory and antimicrobial activities. The resulting peptide, mast-MO, adopted an α-helical structure as determin ...[more]