Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic.
Chembiochem. 2011 Jun 14;12(9):1352-61. doi: 10.1002/cbic.201100066. Epub 2011 May 10.
Recently, we identified a new insect defensin, named lucifensin that is secreted/excreted by the blowfly Lucilia sericata larvae into a wound as a disinfectant during the medicinal process known as maggot therapy. Here, we report the total chemical synthesis of this peptide of 40 amino acid residues and three intramolecular disulfide bridges by using three different protocols. Oxidative folding of linear peptide yielded a peptide with a pattern of disulfide bridges identical to that of native lucifensin. The synthetic lucifensin was active against Gram-positive bacteria and was not hemolytic. We synthesized three lucifensin analogues that are cyclized through one native disulfide bridge in different positions and having the remaining four cysteines substituted by alanine. Only the analogue cyclized through a Cys16-Cys36 disulfide bridge showed weak antimicrobial activity. Truncating lucifensin at the N-terminal by ten amino acid residues resulted in a drop in antimicrobial activity. Linear lucifensin having all six cysteine residues alkylated was inactive. Circular dichroism spectra measured in the presence of α-helix-promoting compounds showed different patterns for lucifensin and its analogues. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that Bacillus subtilis treatment with lucifensin induced significant changes in its envelope.
最近,我们发现了一种新的昆虫防御素,名为 lucifensin,它是由丝光绿蝇幼虫分泌/排泄到伤口中的,作为一种消毒剂,用于所谓的蛆疗法。在这里,我们报告了该肽的全长化学合成,该肽由 40 个氨基酸残基和三个分子内二硫键组成,使用了三种不同的方案。线性肽的氧化折叠产生了一种具有与天然 lucifensin 相同的二硫键模式的肽。合成的 lucifensin 对革兰氏阳性菌具有活性,并且不溶血。我们合成了三种 lucifensin 类似物,它们通过不同位置的一个天然二硫键环化,并且其余四个半胱氨酸被丙氨酸取代。只有通过 Cys16-Cys36 二硫键环化的类似物显示出微弱的抗菌活性。在 N 端截断 lucifensin 10 个氨基酸残基导致抗菌活性下降。所有六个半胱氨酸残基烷基化的线性 lucifensin 无活性。在存在促进α-螺旋形成的化合物的情况下测量的圆二色性光谱显示了 lucifensin 及其类似物的不同模式。透射电子显微镜显示,枯草芽孢杆菌用 lucifensin 处理后,其包膜发生了显著变化。
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