The only human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, playing key roles in innate immune defense, wound healing, and modulation of inflammatory responses.
Various sebum free fatty acids (FFAs) have shown antibacterial activity against a broad range of gram-positive bacteria, resulting in the suggestion that they are accountable, at least partially, for the direct antimicrobial activity of the skin surf…
The in vitro antimicrobial activities and biological effects on host cells were compared for the bovine cathelicidins BMAP-28, an alpha-helical AMP, and Bac5 and Bac7, proline-rich AMPs. Our results confirm that the broad-spectrum activity of BMAP-28…
Antimicrobial peptides have activity against a wide variety of biological membranes and are an important component of innate immunity in vertebrate as well as invertebrate systems. The mechanisms of action of these peptides are incompletely understoo…
BACKGROUND: Vitamin D insufficiency is common in industrialized and developing nations. Recent studies have shown that vitamin D insufficiency is associated with a higher risk of active tuberculosis. Laboratory studies provided a mechanism for this l…
To evaluate the association of Toll-like receptors (TLRs), antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and vitamin D receptors (VDRs) in psoriasis, lesional (PP) and perilesional skin (PN) from psoriasis, atopic dermatitis (AD) patients and healthy controls (NN) w…
In human monocytes, Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2/1 activation leads to vitamin D3-dependent antimycobacterial activities, but the molecular mechanisms by which TLR2/1 stimulation induces antimicrobial activities against mycobacteria remain unclear. Her…
Vitamin D was discovered as the preventive agent of nutritional rickets, a defect in bone development due to inadequate uptake of dietary calcium. However, a variety of studies over the last several years has revealed that vitamin D controls much mor…
Expression of leucine, leucine-37 (LL-37) is enhanced in keratinocytes of skin lesions with psoriasis. We examined serum LL-37 levels in patients with psoriasis vulgaris. Serum LL-37 levels in patients were higher than in normal controls, and were re…
Vitamin D-insufficiency is a prevalent condition in populations throughout the world, with low serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) linked to a variety of human health concerns including cancer, autoimmune disease and infection. Current data s…
BACKGROUND: Primary diagnostic cultures from patients with melioidosis demonstrate variation in colony morphology of the causative organism, Burkholderia pseudomallei. Variable morphology is associated with changes in the expression of a range of put…
Group A Streptococcus is a leading human pathogen associated with a diverse array of mucosal and systemic infections. Cell wall anchored pili were recently described in several species of pathogenic streptococci, and in the case of GAS, these surface…
Polyamines are biogenic polycationic molecules involved in key cellular functions. Extracellular polyamines found in bodily fluids or laboratory media can be imported by bacteria or bind to negatively charged bacterial surface structures, where they…
The antimicrobial peptide LL-37 is known to have a potent LPS-neutralizing activity in monocytes and macrophages. Recently, LL-37 in gingival crevicular fluids is suggested to be the major protective factor preventing infection of periodontogenic pat…
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are essential host defence molecules found in a wide variety of species and are promising antibacterial therapeutic candidates. Focusing on the human cathelicidin peptide LL-37, the aim of the present study was to explor…
BACKGROUND: Activation of innate immunity plays a key role in determining the outcome of an infection. Here, we investigated whether Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are involved in retinal innate response and explored the prophylactic use of TLR2 ligand i…
BACKGROUND: Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) is a key factor in determining monocyte induction of the antimicrobial protein cathelicidin, which requires intracrine conversion of 25OHD to 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25(OH)(2)D]. Both vitamin D metabol…
Recurrent skin infection is one of the major complications of atopic dermatitis and can be partly explained by decreased expression of antimicrobial peptides such as human beta-defensin-2 and cathelicidin (LL-37). In the human epidermis, human beta-d…
Bacterial sensing of environmental signals plays a key role in regulating virulence and mediating bacterium-host interactions. The sensing of the neuroendocrine stress hormones epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) plays an impo…
Three Arg-rich nonapeptides, containing the same amino acid composition but different sequences, PFWRIRIRR-amide (PR-9), RRPFWIIRR-amide (RR-9) and PRFRWRIRI-amide (PI-9), are able to induce segregation of anionic lipids from zwitterionic lipids, as…