The only human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, playing key roles in innate immune defense, wound healing, and modulation of inflammatory responses.
BACKGROUND: Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases such as tuberculosis and sarcoidosis. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the vitamin D-dependent mechanisms of immunity and autoimmunity in different forms of pu…
Adipose stem cell-conditioned medium may promote human dermal fibroblast (HDF) proliferation and migration by activating paracrine peptides during the re-epithelization phase of wound healing. Human antimicrobial peptide LL-37 is upregulated in the s…
The gut microbiome participates in numerous physiologic functions and communicates intimately with the host immune system. Antimicrobial peptides are critical components of intestinal innate immunity. We report a prominent role for antimicrobials sec…
BACKGROUND: Sustained exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) is a global cause of mortality. Coal fly ash (CFA) is a byproduct of coal combustion and is a source of anthropogenic PM with worldwide health relevance. The airway epithelia are lined…
Cathelicidins play critical roles in mammalian innate immune defense against invasive bacterial infection. In addition to their broad-spectrum bactericidal effect, cathelicidins are interesting peptide-based drug templates because they have multiple…
Streptococcus suis is an important meningitis-causing pathogen in pigs and humans. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) have been identified as host defense mechanism against different pathogens. Here, NETs were detected in the cerebrospinal fluid (…
Venom peptides are known to have strong antimicrobial activity and anticancer properties. King cobra cathelicidin or OH-CATH (KF-34), banded krait cathelicidin (BF-30), wolf spider lycotoxin I (IL-25), and wolf spider lycotoxin II (KE-27) venom pepti…
There is rapidly growing evidence that adipose tissue is involved in the pathophysiology of psoriasis. Recent results demonstrate that murine skin can react to pathogens with the expansion of its dermal adipose depot and an increased production of an…
Cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs) are an essential part of the innate immune system. Some Gram-negative enteric pathogens, such asSalmonella enterica, show intrinsic resistance to CAMPs. However, the molecular basis of intrinsic resistance is p…
Macrolide antibiotics have been shown to act as immunomodulatory molecules in various immune cells. However, their effect on neutrophils has not been extensively investigated. In this study, we investigated the role of macrolide antibiotics in the ge…
Recent studies have demonstrated that anti-staphylococcal beta-lactam antibiotics, like nafcillin, render methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) more susceptible to killing by innate host defense peptides (HDPs), such as cathelicidin LL-3…
We investigated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cathelicidin concentrations in childhood bacterial meningitis on admission and during antimicrobial treatment. CSF cathelicidin concentrations on admission correlated with CSF white cell counts and protein le…
Streptococcus mitis is a colonizer of the oral cavity and the nasopharynx, and is closely related to Streptococcus pneumoniae. Both species occur in encapsulated and unencapsulated forms, but in S. mitis the role of the capsule in host interactions i…
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been paid considerable attention because of their broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and a reduced possibility of the development of bacterial drug resistance. Fowlicidin-3 (Fow-3) is an identified type of chicke…
CD8(+)/TCR(-) facilitating cells (FCs) in mouse bone marrow (BM) significantly enhance engraftment of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs). Human FC phenotype and mechanism of action remain to be defined. We report, for the first time, the phe…
CONTEXT: Recent studies have shown that tolls like receptors (TLRs) and antimicrobial peptides (hBD-1, cathelicidin) play an important role in the pathogenesis of acne vulgaris (AV). OBJECTIVE: To evaluate and report the expression of TLR-2, TLR-4, h…
A critical function for skin is that when damaged it must simultaneously identify the nature of the injury, repair barrier function, and limit the intrusion of pathogenic organisms. These needs are carried out through the detection of damage-associat…
BACKGROUND: Although promising for graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) treatment, MSC therapy still faces important challenges. For instance, increasing MSC migratory capacity as well as potentializing immune response suppression are of interest. For Gv…
The hygiene hypothesis postulates that higher levels of cleanliness and improper exposure to microorganisms early in childhood could disturb the intestinal microbiome resulting in abnormal immune responses. Recently, more attention has been put on ho…
OBJECTIVES: The Gram-negative bacillus Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (SM) is an emerging MDR opportunistic pathogen. Recent studies identify a potentially relevant activity of azithromycin against Gram-negative bacteria overlooked in standard bacterio…