scholarly journals Structure–Activity Study, Characterization, and Mechanism of Action of an Antimicrobial Peptoid D2 and Its d- and l-Peptide Analogues

Molecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 1121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ines Greco ◽  
Johannes Hansen ◽  
Bimal Jana ◽  
Natalia Molchanova ◽  
Alberto Oddo ◽  
...  

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP) constitutes an emerging health problem for companion animals in veterinary medicine. Therefore, discovery of novel antimicrobial agents for treatment of Staphylococcus-associated canine infections is urgently needed to reduce use of human antibiotics in veterinary medicine. In the present work, we characterized the antimicrobial activity of the peptoid D2 against S. pseudintermedius and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is another common integumentary pathogen in dogs. Furthermore, we performed a structure–activity relationship study of D2, which included 19 peptide/peptoid analogs. Our best compound D2D, an all d-peptide analogue, showed potent minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) against canine S. pseudintermedius (2–4 µg/mL) and P. aeruginosa (4 µg/mL) isolates as well as other selected dog pathogens (2–16 µg/mL). Time–kill assays demonstrated that D2D was able to inhibit MRSP in 30 min at 1× MIC, significantly faster than D2. Our results suggest that at high concentrations D2D is rapidly lysing the bacterial membrane while D2 is inhibiting macromolecular synthesis. We probed the mechanism of action at sub-MIC concentrations of D2, D2D, the l-peptide analog and its retro analog by a macromolecular biosynthesis assay and fluorescence spectroscopy. Our data suggest that at sub-MIC concentrations D2D is membrane inactive and primarily works by cell wall inhibition, while the other compounds mainly act on the bacterial membrane.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 3206
Author(s):  
Lorina I. Badger-Emeka ◽  
Promise Madu Emeka ◽  
Hairul Islam M. Ibrahim

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection is detrimental to hospitalized patients. With diminishing choices of antibiotics and the worry about resistance to colistin in synergistic combined therapy, there are suggestions for the use of herbal derivatives. This investigation evaluated the synergistic effects of Nigella sativa (NS) in combination with beta-lactam (β-lactam) antibiotics on extreme drug-resistant (XDR) MRSA isolates. NS concentrations of 10, 7.5, 5.0, 2.5, 1.0, and 0.1 µg/mL, alone and in combination with β-lactam antibiotics, were used to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility of MRSA isolates by the well diffusion method. Time–kill assays were performed using a spectrophotometer, with time–kill curves plotted and synergism ascertained by the fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC). Scanning and transmission electron microscopy were used to gain insight into the mechanism of action of treated groups. Isolates were inhibited by the NS concentrations, with differences in the zones of inhibition being statistically insignificant at p < 0.05. There were statistically significant differences in the time–kill assay for the MRSA isolates. In addition, NS combined with augmentin showed better killing than oxacillin and cefuroxime. The mechanism of action shown by the SEM and TEM results revealed cell wall disruption, which probably created interference that led to bacterial lysis.


Biomolecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 421
Author(s):  
Areetha R. D’Souza ◽  
Matthew R. Necelis ◽  
Alona Kulesha ◽  
Gregory A. Caputo ◽  
Olga V. Makhlynets

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) present a promising scaffold for the development of potent antimicrobial agents. Substitution of tryptophan by non-natural amino acid Azulenyl-Alanine (AzAla) would allow studying the mechanism of action of AMPs by using unique properties of this amino acid, such as ability to be excited separately from tryptophan in a multi-Trp AMPs and environmental insensitivity. In this work, we investigate the effect of Trp→AzAla substitution in antimicrobial peptide buCATHL4B (contains three Trp side chains). We found that antimicrobial and bactericidal activity of the original peptide was preserved, while cytocompatibility with human cells and proteolytic stability was improved. We envision that AzAla will find applications as a tool for studies of the mechanism of action of AMPs. In addition, incorporation of this non-natural amino acid into AMP sequences could enhance their application properties.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 116-122
Author(s):  
Claire Hargrave

The capacity of animals to communicate via pheromones is long established and, for generations, pheromones have been unwittingly used by man to manage the behaviour of animals in agriculture — using the chemicals produced by an individual member of a species to alter the behaviour of another member of that species. More recently, insect pheromones have been used in managing insect infestations of crops. However, approximately 25 years ago the French veterinary surgeon, Patrick Pageat, began to investigate the production of pheromones in both farm and companion animals and how synthetic analogues of pheromones could be used to improve animal welfare, creating a new field in veterinary medicine — pheromonotherapy. This article aims to summarise the main developments in pheromonotherapy over the last 25 years.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shira Mandel ◽  
Janna Michaeli ◽  
Noa Nur ◽  
Isabelle Erbetti ◽  
Jonathan Zazoun ◽  
...  

AbstractNew antimicrobial agents are urgently needed, especially to eliminate multidrug resistant Gram-negative bacteria that stand for most antibiotic-resistant threats. In the following study, we present superior properties of an engineered antimicrobial peptide, OMN6, a 40-amino acid cyclic peptide based on Cecropin A, that presents high efficacy against Gram-negative bacteria with a bactericidal mechanism of action. The target of OMN6 is assumed to be the bacterial membrane in contrast to small molecule-based agents which bind to a specific enzyme or bacterial site. Moreover, OMN6 mechanism of action is effective on Acinetobacter baumannii laboratory strains and clinical isolates, regardless of the bacteria genotype or resistance-phenotype, thus, is by orders-of-magnitude, less likely for mutation-driven development of resistance, recrudescence, or tolerance. OMN6 displays an increase in stability and a significant decrease in proteolytic degradation with full safety margin on erythrocytes and HEK293T cells. Taken together, these results strongly suggest that OMN6 is an efficient, stable, and non-toxic novel antimicrobial agent with the potential to become a therapy for humans.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 2740-2744
Author(s):  
Anil Verma ◽  
Vinod Kumar ◽  
Ramesh Kataria ◽  
Joginder Singh

Eleven acetohydrazide linked pyrazole derivatives were designed and synthesized via condensation of acetohyadrazide with different substituted formyl pyrazole derivatives under mild reaction conditions. Synthesized compounds were characterized on the basis of IR, NMR (1H & 13C) and mass spectrometry. The antimicrobial activities of all the compounds were screened against four bacterial and two fungal strains. Among the synthesized compounds, three compounds viz. 6b, 6c and 6d were found as efficient antimicrobial agents in reference to the standard drugs viz. ciprofloxacin and amphotericin-B. Further, structure-activity relationship (SAR) study revealed that electron-withdrawing group enhances the antimicrobial potential of synthesized derivatives as compared to other groups present in the ring. Hence, among compounds 6b-c, compound 6d could be explored further against other microbes to prove its vitality.


2017 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamad Khairil Radzali ◽  
Akmal Hayat Abdul Karim ◽  
Syahida Ahmad ◽  
Wan Zuhainis Saad

This study was undertaken to investigate the antibacterial properties and the mode of actions of crude extract of Aspergillus fumigatus SSH01. Antibacterial properties was observed against Gram-positive pathogens and showed inhibition against Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538, methicillin-resistant S. aureus S547 (MRSA) and Listeria monocytogenes L10 with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC, 0.097- 12.5 mg/ml) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC, 0.195 – 25 mg/ml). No surviving cells were detected after 15 h of treatment with the 2MIC of extracts for time-kill assay. Leakage of cellular contents of the treated test pathogens were identified and increased as the concentrations of the extracts increased. The study of morphological surface has shown the bacterial membrane was disrupted and caused loss of viability. This implies the antibacterial effects of A. fumigatus SSH01 extract may serve as the potential antibiotic. 


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