The only human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, playing key roles in innate immune defense, wound healing, and modulation of inflammatory responses.
The pathogenesis of rosacea - a common, chronic inflammatory skin disease mainly affecting the central portions of the face - is only partly understood. In affected skin the expression of cathelicidin - an antimicrobial peptide and effector of innate…
The pathophysiology of rosacea involves a large number of factors that are at times difficult to correlate. There is not a single physiopathological model. Nevertheless, today it seems to have been established that two essential factors are involved:…
PURPOSE: This study was conducted to investigate whether flagellin, the sole ligand of Toll-like receptor-5 (TLR5), induces an innate defense that is sufficient to protect injured corneas from Candida albicans. METHODS: Scarified corneas of adult B6,…
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a severe and incurable autoimmune disease characterized by chronic activation of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) and production of autoantibodies against nuclear self-antigens by hyperreactive B cells. Neutro…
The second part of our study deals with a comparative evaluation and discussion of the immunohistochemical results that were obtained. The cryoscanning electron microscopy (cryoSEM) observations confirmed a monolayer colonization of the esophageal su…
Bone marrow (BM)-derived fibrocytes are a population of CD45(+) and collagen Type I-expressing cells that migrate to the spleen and to target injured organs, such as skin, lungs, kidneys, and liver. While CD45(+)Col(+) fibrocytes contribute to collag…
BACKGROUND: Protozoan parasites, such as Leishmania, still pose an enormous public health problem in many countries throughout the world. Current measures are outdated and have some associated drug resistance, prompting the search into novel therapie…
Recent papers highlight the role of dysregulated expression of antimicrobial peptides and proteins (AMPs) in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Etanercept, a blocker of the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), is effective in the t…
Six different cathelicidin-derived peptides were compared to tobramycin for antibacterial and anti-biofilm effects against S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, and S. maltophilia strains isolated from cystic fibrosis patients. Overall, SMAP-29, BMAP-28, and BMA…
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the core functional region of antimicrobial peptide LL-37, which inhibites RSV replication and could be developed for theraputic aplication. METHODS: A panel of 6 partial LL-37 peptides (referred to as P1 to P6) was synthesi…
An abnormal neutrophil subset has been identified in the PBMC fractions from lupus patients. We have proposed that these low-density granulocytes (LDGs) play an important role in lupus pathogenesis by damaging endothelial cells and synthesizing incre…
PURPOSE: Studies show that LL-37 is a naturally occurring urinary defensin peptide that is up-regulated during urinary tract infections. Although normal urinary LL-37 levels are antimicrobial, we propose that increased LL-37 may trigger bladder infla…
The CsrRS (or CovRS) two component system controls expression of up to 15% of the genome of group A Streptococcus (GAS). While some studies have suggested that the sensor histidine kinase CsrS responds to membrane perturbations as a result of various…
Shigella dysenteriae type 1 causes devastating epidemics in developing countries with high case-fatality rates in all age-groups. The aim of the study was to compare host immune responses to epidemic (T2218) and endemic strains of S. dysenteriae type…
The human cathelicidin peptide, LL-37, is a host defense peptide with a wide range of immunomodulatory activities and modest direct antimicrobial properties. LL-37 can exert both pro- and anti-inflammatory effects and can modulate the proinflammatory…
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are part of the innate immune system and are generally defined as cationic, amphipathic peptides, with less than 50 amino acids, including multiple arginine and lysine residues. The human cathelicidin antimicrobial pepti…
Cancer cells recruit monocytes, macrophages and other inflammatory cells by producing abundant chemoattractants and growth factors, such as macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF/CSF-1) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1/CCL2), to pro…
Defensins and cathelicidins are small cationic peptides produced by neutrophils and epithelial cells. They are highly expressed during infection. The role of constitutive and inducible antibacterial peptides has been extensively studied over the rece…
BACKGROUND: The absence of specific histological or serological markers, the gaps in understanding the aetiology and pathophysiology of rosacea, and the broad diversity in its clinical manifestations has made it difficult to reach international conse…
Inflammatory diseases remain an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Cathelicidins are immunomodulatory and antimicrobial peptides with potent anti-endotoxic properties. Although the effects of the human cathelicidin LL-37 on cellular response…