Structural and Functional Analysis of Horse Cathelicidin Peptides

Structural and functional analysis of horse cathelicidin peptides.

Cathelicidin-derived antimicrobial peptides are a component of the peptide-based host defense of neutrophils and epithelia, with a widespread distribution in mammals. We recently reported the cDNA sequences of three putative horse myeloid cathelicidins, named eCATH-1, -2, and -3. A Western analysis was performed to investigate their presence in neutrophils and processing to mature peptides. eCA...

Cathelicidin Family of Antibacterial Peptides

Structural-functional studies of peptides derived from a long-chain snake neurotoxin Naja naja oxiana

Introduction: The design and structural characterization of mini-proteins with a compact, folded structure provide insight into the complex architecture of proteins today and has long been a challenging issue in structural- functional studies. Alpha neurotoxins from snake venom have a distinct folded structure comprised of a disulphide core and three loops or “fingers” each of these loops are c...

Structural and functional characterization of elastases from horse neutrophils.

In order better to understand the pathophysiology of the equine form of emphysema, two elastinolytic enzymes from horse neutrophils, referred to as proteinases 2A and 2B, have been extensively characterized and compared with the human neutrophil proteinases, proteinase-3 and elastase. Specificity studies using both the oxidized insulin B-chain and synthetic peptides revealed that cleavage of pe...

Activity of Cathelicidin Peptides against Simkania negevensis

The in vitro activity of six cathelicidin peptides against the reference strain Z of Simkania negevensis was investigated. Five peptides-PG-1, Bac7, SMAP-29, BMAP-27, and BMAP-28-proved to be active at very low concentrations (1 to 0.1 μg/mL), while LL-37 cathelicidin was ineffective even at a concentration of 100 μg/mL. In comparison to chlamydiae, S. negevensis proved to be more susceptible t...