The only human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, playing key roles in innate immune defense, wound healing, and modulation of inflammatory responses.
The antimicrobial peptide LL-37 belongs to the cathelicidin family and is the first amphipathic alpha-helical peptide isolated from human. LL-37 is considered to play an important role in the first line of defence against local infection and systemic…
Surfactant preparations obtained from porcine lungs by extraction with chloroform/methanol followed by chromatography over Lipidex-5000 are used for treatment of respiratory distress syndrome in preterm infants. These preparations contain about 98% p…
The in vivo mRNA levels for 16 granule proteins during neutrophil differentiation were determined to address the question of whether the synthesis of granule proteins is regulated individually or blockwise. RNA was extracted from peripheral blood gra…
Cathelicidins constitute a family of mammalian antimicrobial peptides that are synthesized in the bone marrow as prepropeptides, stored in neutrophil granules as propeptides, and released as active, mature peptides upon neutrophil degranulation. We i…
Cathelicidins are a family of antibacterial and lipopolysaccharide-binding proteins. hCAP-18, the only human cathelicidin, is a major protein of the specific granules of human neutrophils. The plasma level of hCAP-18 is >20-fold higher than that of o…
Recent studies suggest that the gene defect in cystic fibrosis (CF) leads to a breach in innate immunity. We describe a novel genetic strategy for reversing the CF-specific defect of antimicrobial activity by transferring a gene encoding a secreted c…
Bac4 is a bovine cathelicidin gene contiguous to another member of this family named Bac7. Although mutations in the sequence suggested that Bac4 gene might be non-functional, primers based on Bac4 specific sequences allowed amplification of a 900 bp…
Antimicrobial peptides are an abundant and diverse component of animal innate immunity. Within mammalian species, defensins and cathelicidins are the two principal antimicrobial peptide families. We identified and sequenced ten new sheep genes which…
Human neutrophils contain two structurally distinct types of antimicrobial peptides, beta-sheet defensins (HNP-1 to HNP-4) and the alpha-helical peptide LL-37. We used radial diffusion assays and an improved National Committee for Clinical Laboratory…
The airway surface is an important host defense against pulmonary infection. Secretion of proteins with antimicrobial activity from epithelial cells onto the airway surface represents an important component of this innate immune system. Defensins are…
We have previously described the antibacterial capacity of protegrin-1 (PG-1), a cysteine-rich, cationic peptide from porcine leukocytes, against Neisseria gonorrhoeae. We now report genetic and biochemical evidence that gonococcal susceptibility to…
A putative antimicrobial peptide of 34 residues was recently deduced from a bovine cathelicidin gene sequence and named BMAP-34. A peptide based on the deduced sequence was chemically synthesized and used to study the localization, structure and biol…
Epithelial tissues provide the first line of defense between an organism and the environment. Disruption of this barrier leads to bacterial invasion and subsequent inflammation. This is precisely the situation existing in the human oral cavity, where…
Antimicrobial peptides are present in a wide range of species, from protozoa to man, as effector molecules of innate immunity. Several bovine precursors of antimicrobial peptides have recently been identified, as deduced from cDNA, and assigned to th…
The antibacterial and cytotoxic activity of the human cathelicidin peptide LL-37 is inhibited by plasma. Because LL-37 does not undergo rapid degradation in human plasma, we postulated that this inhibition results from binding of LL-37 to unidentifie…
The influence of ion composition, pH, and peptide concentration on the conformation and activity of the 37-residue human antibacterial peptide LL-37 has been studied. At micromolar concentration in water, LL-37 exhibits a circular dichroism spectrum…
Neutrophils contain various antibacterial polypeptides and proteins in the granules that contribute to the killing of microorganisms. Recently, we have purified a cationic antibacterial polypeptide of 11 kDa (CAP11) from guinea pig neutrophil granule…
Cathelicidins are a group of myeloid antimicrobial peptide precursors found in a variety of mammalian species. Transcripts of this family show a highly conserved 5' region corresponding to the 5' untranslated region, signal peptide and propiece, and…
The epithelia constitute a major barrier to the environment and provide the first line of defense against invading microbes. Antimicrobial peptides are emerging as participants in the defense system of epithelial barriers in general. Originally we is…