The only human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, playing key roles in innate immune defense, wound healing, and modulation of inflammatory responses.
The primary trigger of polymorphic light eruption (PLE) remains to be uncovered. We hypothesize that PLE may be initiated by elements resulting from UV-induced damage to microbial communities of the skin, leading to a cascade of events eventually res…
Livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) is an important zoonotic pathogen. An emerging problem in treating S. aureus infections is the increasing resistance against antibiotics. A possible way to overcome this issue…
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…
The human cathelicidin hCAP18/LL-37 has become a paradigm for the pleiotropic roles of peptides in host defence. It has a remarkably wide functional repertoire that includes direct antimicrobial activities against various types of microorganisms, the…
Alamethicin is a well-studied antimicrobial peptide (AMP) that kills Gram-positive bacteria. It forms narrow, barrel-stave pores in planar lipid bilayers. We present a detailed, time-resolved microscopy study of the sequence of events during the atta…
Vitamin D has immunomodulatory properties in the defence against pathogens. Its insufficiency is a widespread feature of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, which are repeatedly suffering from rhinovirus (RV)-induced pulmonary exacerbations.To investigate…
The influence of Escherichia coli rough lipopolysaccharide chemotype on the membrane activity of the mammalian antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) human cathelicidin (LL37) and bovine lactoferricin (LFb) was studied on bilayers using solid state (2)H NMR (…
Vitamin D has been previously recognized to play important roles in human immune system and function. In the pulmonary system, vitamin D regulates the function of antimicrobial peptides, especially cathelicidin/LL-37. Human cathelicidin/LL-37 is a ba…
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…
Traditionally, calcitriol has been considered a calcium and phosphate regulating hormone, but has recently been shown to play a pivotal role in innate immunity. Many barrier and immune cells have membrane and intracellular receptors that recognize di…
As the most common fungal pathogen of humans, severe drug resistance has emerged in the clinically isolated Candida albicans, which lead to the urgency to develop novel antifungal agents. Here, four our previously characterized cathelicidins (catheli…
This study evaluated the cytotoxicity and effect of fragments derived from three oral cationic peptides (CP): LL-37, D6-17 and D1-23 against cariogenic bacteria under planktonic and biofilm conditions. For cytotoxicity analysis, two epithelial cell l…
Broad-spectrum antimicrobials are needed to effectively treat patients infected in the event of a pandemic or intentional release of a pathogen prior to confirmation of the pathogen's identity. Engineered cationic antimicrobial peptides (eCAPs) displ…
BACKGROUND: Active Vitamin D analogues are used clinically for prevention and treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) in hemodialysis (HD) patients. Nutritional vitamin D supplementation is used for additional local parathyroid (PTH) suppre…
Designing efficient colloidal systems for the delivery of membrane active antimicrobial peptides requires in-depth understanding of their structural and morphological characteristics. Using dispersions of inverted type bicontinuous cubic phase (cubos…
Enterohemorrhagic E.coli (EHEC) is an important foodborne pathogen in the developed world and can cause life-threatening disease particularly in children. EHEC persists in the human gut by adhering intimately to colonic epithelium and forming charact…
The liver is a major organ that removes waste substances from the blood, and liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) are professional scavenger cells, which incorporate and degrade various endogenous and exogenous molecules including pathogenic fa…
Bacterial infections of the respiratory tract contribute to exacerbations and disease progression in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). There is also an increased risk of invasive pneumococcal disease in COPD. The underlying mechanisms are…
BACKGROUND: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of severe lower respiratory tract illness in young children worldwide. Treatment options for severe RSV disease remain limited and the development of therapeutic treatment strategies rema…
Sheep myeloid antimicrobial peptide-29 (SMAP-29) is a cathelicidin-related antimicrobial peptide derived from sheep myeloid cells. In order to investigate the effects of L-to-D-amino acid substitution in SMAP-29 on bacterial selectivity, membrane int…