Ciociola Tecla, Giovati Laura, De Simone Tiziano, Bergamaschi Greta, Gori Alessandro, Consalvi Valerio, Conti Stefania, Vitali Alberto
Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, 43126 Parma, Italy.
National Research Council of Italy, Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Chimiche (SCITEC-CNR), 20131 Milan, Italy.
Antibiotics (Basel). 2023 Feb 26;12(3):472. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics12030472.
Antimicrobial resistance is a major public health concern worldwide. Albeit to a lesser extent than bacteria, fungi are also becoming increasingly resistant to antifungal drugs. Moreover, due to the small number of antifungal classes, therapy options are limited, complicating the clinical management of mycoses. In this view, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a potential alternative to conventional drugs. Among these, Proline-rich antimicrobial peptides (PrAMPs), almost exclusively of animal origins, are of particular interest due to their peculiar mode of action. In this study, a search for new arginine- and proline-rich peptides from plants has been carried out with a bioinformatic approach by sequence alignment and antimicrobial prediction tools. Two peptide candidates were tested against planktonic cells and biofilms of and strains, including resistant isolates. These peptides showed similar potent activity, with half-maximal effective concentration values in the micromolar range. In addition, some structural and functional features, revealing peculiar mechanistic behaviors, were investigated.
抗菌耐药性是全球主要的公共卫生问题。尽管程度低于细菌，但真菌对抗真菌药物的耐药性也在日益增加。此外，由于抗真菌药物种类较少，治疗选择有限，使得真菌病的临床管理变得复杂。鉴于此，抗菌肽（AMPs）是传统药物的一种潜在替代品。其中，富含脯氨酸的抗菌肽（PrAMPs）几乎全部源自动物，因其独特的作用方式而备受关注。在本研究中，通过序列比对和抗菌预测工具，采用生物信息学方法从植物中寻找新的富含精氨酸和脯氨酸的肽。针对包括耐药菌株在内的白色念珠菌和热带念珠菌菌株的浮游细胞和生物膜，对两种候选肽进行了测试。这些肽表现出相似的强效活性，半数有效浓度值在微摩尔范围内。此外，还研究了一些揭示特殊作用机制的结构和功能特征。
