The only human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, playing key roles in innate immune defense, wound healing, and modulation of inflammatory responses.
Recent evidence suggests that inflammatory molecules play critical roles in the development and progression of numerous tumors. However, one specific group of inflammatory molecules whose importance has been established in host immune responses, term…
Cystatins, the cysteine protease inhibitors, and the cathelin-like domain (CLD) of the antimicrobial cathelicidins are classified into the same superfamily because of their overall structural similarity. However, their evolutionary relationship has r…
The innate immune system produces a number of effector molecules that are important for protection against bacterial infections. Neutrophils and antimicrobial peptides are major components of innate defense with the capacity of rapid bacterial killin…
As a key component of the innate immunity system, human cathelicidin LL-37 plays an essential role in protecting humans against infectious diseases. To elucidate the structural basis for its targeting bacterial membrane, we have determined the high q…
Cathelicidins are antimicrobial peptides, well studied in mammals and found to be multifunctional proteins, important in the fight against bacterial invasion. Cathelicidins in fish have only recently been identified and little is known about their fu…
Neutrophil granules contain several antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that are important effector molecules of innate immunity. In mammals, the main families of these peptides are the cathelicidins and defensins. Several defensins have been characterized…
The cathelin-like domain (CLD) of the antimicrobial cathelicidin family constitutes a unique protein family with structural similarity to cystatins, the cysteine protease inhibitors. CLDs are derived from the processed amino-terminal prosequence of t…
Mast cells (MC) express cathelicidin antimicrobial peptides that act as broad-spectrum antibiotics and influence the immune defense of multiple epithelial surfaces. We hypothesized that MC help protect against skin infection through the expression of…
BACKGROUND: Modification of teichoic acids with D-alanine by the products of the dlt operon protects Gram-positive bacteria against major antimicrobial host defense molecules such as defensins, cathelicidins, myeloperoxidase or phospholipase. The gra…
Gingival innate immunity has been studied by using biopsies and normal or transformed epithelial cell monolayers. To overcome individual biological variabilities and as a physiological alternative, we have proposed using a reconstructed tissue equiva…
The action of antibacterial cathelicidin peptide CAP11 on the anandamide production from mononuclear phagocytes was examined. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulation induced the anandamide production from macrophage-like RAW264.7, accompanied with the e…
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The human cathelicidin (LL-37) is one of the major antimicrobial peptides of the non-specific innate immune system in the intestinal tract. Altered expression has been associated with gastrointestinal disease. Recent studies demo…
Besides their microbicidal functions, human beta-defensins (hBD) and LL-37 activate different immune and inflammatory cells, and their expression is enhanced in inflamed skin and cutaneous wound sites. To protect against pathogens, the skin produces…
The well-described antimicrobial and immunoregulatory properties of human cathelicidin antimicrobial protein 18 (hCAP-18) derive in part from the ability of its proteolytic fragment, LL-37 (a.k.a. CAP-37), to associate with activated immune and epith…
We performed a comparative study of effects of two structurally different cationic antimicrobial peptides of cathelicidin family, porcine protegrin 1 (PG1) and caprine bactenecin 5 (Bac5) on selected tumor and normal mammalian cells in vitro. Protegr…
Erythema Toxicum, a rash frequently present in the healthy newborn infant is an innate, immune response to the first commensal micro flora. Flushing and urtication are seen in this manifestation suggesting mast cell (MC) activation and MC derived med…
The increasing prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from hospital- and community-acquired respiratory tract infections is an important public health concern worldwide. The majority of S. aureus strains produce staphylokinase, a plasmi…
Cationic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), a component of the innate immune system, play a major role in defense of mucosal surfaces against a wide spectrum of microorganisms such as viral and bacterial co-pathogens of the polymicrobial disease otitis m…
Nine Chlamydia suis isolates, obtained from pigs with conjunctivitis, were molecularly characterized by ompA sequencing and their in vitro susceptibility to six cathelicidin peptides (SMAP-29, BAC-7, BMAP-27, BMAP-27, BMAP-28, PG-1, LL-37) determined…