The only human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, playing key roles in innate immune defense, wound healing, and modulation of inflammatory responses.
Campylobacter jejuni is a highly prevalent human pathogen for which pathogenic and stress survival strategies remain relatively poorly understood. We previously found that a C. jejuni strain 81-176 mutant defective for key virulence and stress surviv…
Research on antimicrobial peptides has gained pace to exploit their potential and ability to replace conventional antibiotics. Antimicrobial peptides are important members of the host defense system, as they have a broad ability to kill microbes. Ant…
Constant exposure to a wide variety of microbial pathogens represents a major challenge for our skin. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are mediators of cutaneous innate immunity and protect primarily against microbial infections. Cathelicidins were amon…
Purpose. Patients with diabetes are at higher risk for delayed corneal reepithelialization and infection. Previous studies indicated that high glucose (HG) impairs epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling and attenuates ex vivo corneal epith…
Capsular polysaccharides (CPS) are a major virulence factor in meningococcal infections and form the basis for serogroup designation and protective vaccines. Our work has identified meningococcal CPS as a pro-inflammatory ligand that functions throug…
This work investigates the discrimination of lipid monolayers by the ovine antimicrobial peptide SMAP-29 and compares it to that of the human LL-37 peptide. Fluid phospholipid monolayers were formed in a Langmuir trough and subsequently studied with…
To investigate the response of Streptococcus pneumoniae to three distinct antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), bacitracin, nisin, and LL-37, transcriptome analysis of challenged bacteria was performed. Only a limited number of genes were found to be up- or…
The urinary tract is frequently being exposed to potential pathogens and rapid defence mechanisms are therefore needed. Cathelicidin, a human antimicrobial peptide is expressed and secreted by bladder epithelial cells and protects the urinary tract f…
Cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs), a component of the mammalian immune system, protect the host from bacterial infections. The roles of the Escherichia coli transcriptional regulators MarA, SoxS and Rob in susceptibility to these peptides were…
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…
BACKGROUND: Narrowband ultraviolet B (NB-UVB) is a routine treatment for psoriasis and atopic dermatitis (AD) but its effect on vitamin D balance is not well studied. OBJECTIVES: To examine whether NB-UVB treatment in winter improves vitamin D balanc…
A 21-residue peptide segment, LL7-27 (RKSKEKIGKEFKRIVQRIKDF), corresponding to residues 7-27 of the only human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, LL37, is shown to exhibit potent activity against microbes (particularly Gram-positive bacteria) but no…
INTRODUCTION: At the turn of the twentieth century, ultraviolet light was successfully used to treat tuberculosis of the skin. Upper respiratory tract infections had been inversely associated with sun exposure. During the last decade, basic scientifi…
The human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide acts as an effector molecule of the innate immune system with direct antimicrobial and immunomodulatory effects. The aim of this study was to test whether the cathelicidin LL-37 modulates the response of n…
Fowlicidin-1 is a newly identified alpha-helical cathelicidin host defense peptide. We have shown that fowlicidin-1 possesses potent antibacterial activity, but also displays considerable toxicity toward mammalian cells. To further identify fowlicidi…
The mechanisms behind target vs. host cell recognition of the human antimicrobial peptide LL-37 remain ill-defined. Here, we have investigated the membrane disruption capacity of LL-37 using large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) composed of varying mixtu…
Streptococcal inhibitor of complement (SIC) is a highly polymorphic extracellular protein and putative virulence factor secreted by M1 and M57 strains of group A Streptococcus (GAS). The sic gene is highly upregulated in invasive M1T1 GAS isolates fo…
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…
Antimicrobial peptides serve as a first line of innate immune defense against invading organisms such as bacteria and viruses. In this study, we hypothesized that peptides produced by a normal microbial resident of human skin, Staphylococcus epidermi…
Cathelicidin antimicrobial protein, hCAP18, is the sole cathelin protein in human. Its C-terminal peptide, which is released enzymatically from the holoprotein, has broad antimicrobial activity but also has effects on eukaryotic cells. hCAP18 is pres…