The only human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, playing key roles in innate immune defense, wound healing, and modulation of inflammatory responses.
LL-37, a cationic antimicrobial peptide, has numerous immune-modulating effects. However, the identity of a receptor(s) mediating the responses in immune cells remains uncertain. We have recently demonstrated that LL-37 interacts with the αI-domain o…
Glucocorticoids (GCs) have been extensively used as the mainstream treatment for chronic inflammatory disorders. The persistent use of steroids in the past decades and the association with secondary infections warrants for detailed investigation into…
Cathelicidins, a major family of vertebrate antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), have a recognized role in the first line of defense against infections. They have been identified in several salmonid species, where the putative mature peptides are unusually…
Bacterial infections of the respiratory tract contribute to exacerbations and disease progression in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). There is also an increased risk of invasive pneumococcal disease in COPD. The underlying mechanisms are…
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major cause of skin and soft tissue infections. One of the highly successful and rapidly disseminating clones is MRSA ST22 commonly associated with skin tropism. Here we show that a naturally oc…
Membrane-disrupting antimicrobial peptides provide broad-spectrum defence against localized bacterial invasion in a range of hosts including humans. The most generally held consensus is that targeting to pathogens is based on interactions with the he…
Ammonia has been considered the contaminant primarily responsible for respiratory disease in poultry. Even though it can cause tracheal lesions, its adverse effects on the trachea have not been sufficiently studied. The present study investigated tra…
A large number of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) acts with high selectivity and specificity through interactions with membrane lipid components. These peptides undergo complex conformational changes in solution; upon binding to an interface, one major…
Leishmaniaparasites are a major public health problem worldwide. Effective treatment of leishmaniasis is hampered by the high incidence of adverse effects to traditional drug therapy and the emergence of resistance to current therapeutics. A vaccine…
While many global mechanisms of innate immune responses to pathogen threat are conserved over a vast range of species, the details of those responses and their regulation appear to be highly species-specific. An array of studies over recent years has…
Neutrophil defense mechanisms include phagocytosis, degranulation and the formation of extracellular traps (NET). These networks of DNA are triggered by several immune and microbial factors, representing a defense strategy to prevent microbial spread…
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: To investigate the dose-response relation between the dose to the vagina and the patient-reported symptom 'absence of vaginal elasticity' and how time to follow-up influences this relation. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study incl…
Sheep myeloid antimicrobial peptide-29 (SMAP-29) is a cathelicidin-related antimicrobial peptide derived from sheep myeloid cells. In order to investigate the effects of L-to-D-amino acid substitution in SMAP-29 on bacterial selectivity, membrane int…
BACKGROUND: Little information is available regarding vitamin D-associated factors in patients with non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) lung disease. OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between vitamin D-related factors and susceptibility to NTM l…
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are effector molecules of the innate immune system of the skin. They present an activity against a broad spectrum of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria as well as some fungi, parasites and enveloped viruses. Severa…
Mycobacteria of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) greatly impact human and animal health worldwide. The mycobacterial life cycle is complex, and the mechanisms resulting in pathogen infection and survival in host cells are not fully under…
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the biological characteristics of a human specifically targeted antimi- crobial peptide C16LL-37 against Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans). METHODS: In this study, an antimicrobial peptide LL-37, a peptide deriv…
There is rapidly growing evidence that adipose tissue is involved in the pathophysiology of psoriasis. Recent results demonstrate that murine skin can react to pathogens with the expansion of its dermal adipose depot and an increased production of an…
The concurrent increases in global population and sexually transmitted infection (STI) demand a search for agents with dual spermicidal and microbicidal properties for topical vaginal application. Previous attempts to develop the surfactant spermicid…