The only human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, playing key roles in innate immune defense, wound healing, and modulation of inflammatory responses.
BACKGROUND: In patients with rosacea, environmental stressors, especially UVB radiation, trigger disease flares that are characterized by inflammation and vascular hyperactivity. An altered innate immune detection and response system, modulated to a…
Bacterial resistance against common antibiotics is an increasing health problem. New pharmaceuticals for the treatment of infections caused by resistant pathogens are needed. Small proline-rich antimicrobial peptides (PrAMPs) from insects are known t…
Acquisition of adaptive mutations is essential for microbial persistence during chronic infections. This is particularly evident during chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Thus far, mutagenesis has been at…
Host defense peptides, in particular LL-37, are emerging as potential therapeutics for promoting wound healing and inhibiting bacterial growth. However, effective delivery of the LL-37 peptide remains limiting. We hypothesized that skin-targeted elec…
Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax, relies on multiple virulence factors to subvert the host immune defense. Using Caenorhabditis elegans as an infection model, we screened approximately 5,000 transposon mutants of B. anthracis Sterne…
Antimicrobial peptides are an important component of the innate immune defence. Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis (M. avium) is an organism that establishes contact with the respiratory and gastrointestinal mucosa as a necessary step for infecti…
PURPOSE: To evaluate the potential utility of collagen-based corneal implants with anti-Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV)-1 activity achieved through sustained release of LL-37, from incorporated nanoparticles, as compared with cell-based delivery from mode…
The ribonuclease activity of the soluble glycoprotein E(rns) of pestiviruses represents a unique mechanism to circumvent the host's innate immune system by blocking interferon type-I synthesis in response to extracellularly added single- (ss) and dou…
Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) have been described as a fundamental innate immune defence mechanism. They consist of a nuclear DNA backbone associated with different antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) which are able to engulf and kill pathogens. Th…
Protegrins are porcine antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that belong to the cathelicidin family of host defense peptides. Protegrin-1 (PG-1), the most investigated member of the protegrin family, is an arginine-rich peptide consisting of 18 amino acid re…
Candida albicans is amajor fungal pathogen in humans. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are critical components of the innate immune response in vertebrates and represent the first line of defense against microbial infection. LL-37 is the only member of…
Secretory cells in the seromucous glands of paranasal sinuses secrete antibacterial proteins for innate immune mucosal integrity. We studied the localization of antimicrobial and cytoskeletal components of the human seromucous glands and respiratory…
It has been reported that patients with progressive tuberculosis (TB) express abundant amounts of the antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) cathelicidin (LL-37) and human neutrophil peptide-1 (HNP-1) in circulating cells, whereas latent TB infected donors sh…
BACKGROUND: The antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin LL-37/hCAP-18 and human β-defensins (hBD) are key factors in innate immune responses of the respiratory tract. OBJECTIVE: To determine LL-37 and hBD-2 concentrations in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BA…
The antibacterial protein hepcidin regulates the absorption, tissue distribution, and extracellular concentration of iron by suppressing ferroportin-mediated export of cellular iron. In CKD, elevated hepcidin and vitamin D deficiency are associated w…
Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory condition of facial skin estimated to affect more than 16 million Americans. Although the pathogenesis of rosacea is not fully understood, recent evidence in vitro as well as in vivo has supported the role of increas…
OBJECTIVES: We assessed the effect of cholecalciferol and calcium supplementation on mRNA expression of cathelicidin (LL-37), Th1 and Th2 cytokines and their transcription factors in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in healthy females w…
The myxozoan Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae is the causative agent of Proliferative Kidney Disease (PKD) targeting primarily the kidney of infected fish where it causes a chronic lymphoid immunopathology. Although known to be associated with suppressi…
UNLABELLED: The Mac/IdeS protein of group A Streptococcus (GAS) is a secreted cysteine protease with cleavage specificity for IgG and is highly expressed in the GAS serotype M1T1 clone, which is the serotype most frequently isolated from patients wit…
The family of peptides designated as cathelicidins was identified over a decade ago. Cathelicidins have since gained increasing recognition, both as endogenous antibiotics and as effector molecules of the innate immune system. The human cathelicidin…