Anti-Helicobacter pylori Properties of the Ant-Venom Peptide Bicarinalin.

The venom peptide bicarinalin, previously isolated from the ant , is an antimicrobial agent with a broad spectrum of activity. In this study, we investigate the potential of bicarinalin as a novel agent against , which causes several gastric diseases. First, the effects of synthetic bicarinalin have been tested against : one ATCC strain, and forty-four isolated from stomach ulcer biopsies of Peruvian patients. Then the cytoxicity of bicarinalin on human gastric cells and murine peritoneal macrophages was measured using XTT and MTT assays, respectively. Finally, the preventive effect of bicarinalin was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy using an adherence assay of on human gastric cells treated with bicarinalin. This peptide has a potent antibacterial activity at the same magnitude as four antibiotics currently used in therapies against . Bicarinalin also inhibited adherence of to gastric cells with an IC of 0.12 μg·mL and had low toxicity for human cells. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed that bicarinalin can significantly decrease the density of on gastric cells. We conclude that Bicarinalin is a promising compound for the development of a novel and effective anti- agent for both curative and preventive use.