The only human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, playing key roles in innate immune defense, wound healing, and modulation of inflammatory responses.
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are essential components of innate immunity in a range of species from Drosophila to humans and are generally thought to act by disrupting the membrane integrity of microbes. In order to discover novel AMPs in the chicke…
BACKGROUND: The nail is susceptible to microbial invasion, yet is usually able to defend itself from infection. This occurs despite isolation from cell-mediated immunity. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine whether soluble innate immune…
Saliva is essential for a lifelong conservation of the dentition. Various functions of saliva are implicated in the maintenance of oral health and the protection of our teeth: (i) The tooth surface is continuously protected against wear by a film of…
OBJECTIVE: The action of antibacterial cathelicidin CAP11 (cationic antibacterial polypeptide of 11 kDa) on the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced suppression of neutrophil apoptosis was evaluated in vitro. METHODS: Human neutrophils (10(6) cells/ml) w…
Cathelicidins comprise a family of mammalian proteins containing a C-terminal cationic antimicrobial domain that becomes active after being freed from the N-terminal cathelin portion of the holoprotein. Many other members of this family have been ide…
Humans are one of the few species that resist infection by Trypanosoma brucei brucei because the parasites are killed by lytic factors found in human serum. Trypanosome lytic factors (TLFs) are protein/lipid complexes that contain apolipoprotein A-I…
LL-37 is a cationic, amphipathic alpha-helical antimicrobial peptide found in humans that kills cells by disrupting the cell membrane. To disrupt membranes, antimicrobial peptides such as LL-37 must alter the hydrophobic core of the bilayer. Differen…
Although constantly exposed to the environment and "foreign bodies" such as contact lenses and unwashed fingertips, the ocular surface succumbs to infection relatively infrequently. This is, in large part, due to a very active and robust innate immun…
Dendritic cells (DC) are instrumental in orchestrating an appropriately polarized Th cell response to pathogens. DC exhibit considerable phenotypic and functional plasticity, influenced by lineage, Ag engagement, and the environment in which they dev…
Streptococcal inhibitor of complement (SIC) is a 31 kDa extracellular protein produced by a few highly virulent strains of Streptococcus pyogenes (in particular the M1 strain). It has been shown additionally to inhibit four further components of the…
Innate antimicrobial peptides are considered to play an important role in host defense against microbial invasion. They are expressed in a wide variety of organisms. In the case of human beings, defensins and the cathelicidin LL-37 appear to be the m…
Synthetic cathelicidin peptides exhibit enhanced antimicrobial action and avid binding to LPS, thereby detoxifying the action of endotoxin released from degrading bacteria. A series of cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide (CAP) and sheep myeloid antimi…
BACKGROUND: LL-37, an antimicrobial peptide, has been discovered to be produced by a number of epithelial cells. It is identified as a key element in the innate host defense mechanism. Because little is known about the expression of LL-37 in human si…
The release of IL-1 beta is a tightly controlled process that requires induced synthesis of the precursor pro-IL-1 beta and a second stimulus that initiates cleavage and secretion of mature IL-1 beta. Although ATP as a second stimulus potently promot…
UNLABELLED: Histone-deacetylase (HDAC) -inhibitors enhance acetylation of core proteins and this is linked to formation of transcriptionally active chromatin in various cells. In this study, the effect of HDAC inhibitors (butyrate, trichostatin A (TS…
The antibacterial activities of the cathelicidin peptides LL-37 and an 18-residue C-terminal fragment of prophenin, corresponding to positions 62 to 79 of native prophenin (PF-18), were analyzed in the presence of a modified surfactant preparation is…
Mammalian myeloid and epithelial cells express many antimicrobiotic peptides that contribute to innate host defense against invading microbes. In the present study, a 27-mer peptide of the C-terminal domain (hCAP18(109-135)) and analogs of the antimi…
The respiratory epithelium plays a major role in the primary defense of the airways against infection. It has been demonstrated that bacterial products are involved in the induction of inflammatory reactions of the upper airways. Little is known abou…
The significant human bacterial pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes expresses GRAB, a surface protein that binds alpha(2)-macroglobulin (alpha(2)M), a major proteinase inhibitor of human plasma. alpha(2)M inhibits proteolysis by trapping the proteinase,…
To investigate whether LL-37 and human beta defensin-2 (hBD-2) is related to the patients with psoriasis seldom having skin infections and explore the role of the two peptides and CCR6 (the receptor of hBD-2) in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, the exp…