The only human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, playing key roles in innate immune defense, wound healing, and modulation of inflammatory responses.
OBJECTIVES: The role of protease-activated receptor 1 (PAR1) in the pathogenesis of pneumonia and sepsis is ambiguous given the existing literature. As PAR1 is classically activated by the coagulation-based protease thrombin and leads to vascular lea…
Proline-rich antimicrobial peptides (PrAMPs) internalize into susceptible bacteria using specific transporters and interfere with protein synthesis and folding. To date, mammalian PrAMPs have so far been identified only in artiodactyls. Since cetacea…
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prognostic value of human antibacterial peptide LL-37 in elderly patients with sepsis. METHODS: Elderly sepsis patients over 65-year-old satisfied the diagnostic criteria for sepsis and septic shock admitted to intensive ca…
Mammalian interleukin (IL)-2 is a cytokine centrally involved in the differentiation and survival of CD4+ T helper subsets and CD4+ T regulatory cells and in activation of cytotoxic effector lymphocytes. In bony fish,orthologs have been identified wi…
The resurgence of Group A(GAS) infections in the past two decades has been a rising major public health concern. Due to a large number of GAS infections occurring in the skin, mast cells (MCs), innate immune cells known to localize to the dermis, cou…
causes chronic pulmonary infections in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF).mucoid conversion, defined by overproduction of the exopolysaccharide alginate, correlates with accelerated decline in CF patient lung function. Recalcitrance of the mucoid phe…
Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder that is not fully understood but involves the complex interplay of genetic factors, immune dysregulation, neurovascular dysregulation, presence of microorganisms, and environmental factors. Increased ac…
LL-37, the only human cathelicidin that is released during inflammation, is a potent regulator of immune responses by facilitating delivery of oligonucleotides to intracellular TLR-9, thereby enhancing the response of human plasmacytoid dendritic cel…
TLR expression in neutrophils and monocytes is associated with increased cytokine synthesis, resulting in increased inflammation. However, the inflammatory pathway related to TLR and cathelicidin expression in these cells from CKD patients is unclear…
ClpX functions as either an independent chaperone or a component of the ClpXP protease, a conserved intracellular protease that acts as a global regulator in the bacterial cell by degrading regulatory proteins, stress response proteins and rate-limit…
BF-30 is a single chain polypeptide of an N-segment with an α-helix from cathelicidin gene encoding, and it contains 30 amino acid residues, with a relative molecular mass and isoelectric point of 3637.54 and 11.79, respectively. Cathelicidin-BF-30 w…
Nonviral transfection has important implications on gene therapy because of its safety. In particular, polyfection and nucleofection are two widely used systems for nonviral gene delivery. Their potential depends on the transfection efficiency achiev…
The human host defence peptide LL-37 is a broad-spectrum antibiotic with immunomodulatory functions. Residues 18-29 in LL-37 have previously been identified as a minimal peptide (KR-12) that retains antibacterial activity with decreased cytotoxicity.…
The P2X7 receptor (P2X7R) is a ligand-gated plasma membrane ion channel belonging to the P2X receptor subfamily activated by extracellular nucleotides. General consensus holds that the physiological (and maybe the only) agonist is ATP. However, scatt…
Multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, including MRSA (methicillin-resistant) and VRSA (vancomycin-resistant), causes serious healthcare-associated infections, even sepsis and death. Here, we identified six novel cathelicidins (CATHPb1-6) from Py…
PROBLEM: Calcitriol, the hormonal form of vitamin D(VD), stimulates placental antimicrobial peptides expression; nonetheless, the regulation of calcitriol biosynthesis in the presence of bacterial products and its consequence on placental innate immu…
BACKGROUND: We have previously shown that 8 weeks' treatment with phenylbutyrate (PBA) (500mgx2/day) with or without vitamin D(vitD) (5000 IU/day) as host-directed therapy (HDT) accelerated clinical recovery, sputum culture conversion and increased e…
In search of novel antibiotics to combat the challenging spread of resistant pathogens, bacterial proteases represent promising targets for pathoblocker development. A common motif for protease inhibitors is the hydroxamic acid function, yet this gro…
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate (1) levels of the host-defense/antimicrobial peptide LL-37 in patients with trauma and hemorrhagic shock (HS) and (2) the effects of a synthetic host-defense peptide; Pep19-4LF on multiple organ failure (MOF) associated with HS…
Cathelicidins form one of the major families of antimicrobial peptides and have been identified in many vertebrates, including humans. LL-37, the only human member of the cathelicidin family, is detected in most sites of the human body that is normal…