Oral squamous cell carcinoma is the fifth most common epithelial cancer in the world, and its current clinical treatment has both low efficiency and poor selectivity. Cationic amphipathic peptides have been proposed as new drugs for the treatment of different types of cancer. The main goal of the present work was to determine the potential of LfcinB(20-25)4, a tetrameric peptide based on the co...

Bovine lactoferricin (LfcinB) is a cationic antimicrobial peptide that selectively induces apoptosis in several different types of human cancer cells. However, the potential use of LfcinB as an anticancer agent is presently limited by the need for relatively high concentrations of the peptide to trigger apoptosis. Ceramide is a membrane sphingolipid that is believed to function as a second mess...

The ability of lactoferrin (Lf), an iron-binding glycoprotein that is also called lactotransferrin, to bind lipopolysaccharide (LPS) may be relevant to some of its biological properties. A knowledge of the LPS-binding site on Lf may help to explain the mechanism of its involvement in host defence. Our report reveals the presence of two Escherichia coli 055B5 LPS-binding sites on human Lf (hLf):...

Lactoferricin includes an 11-amino-acid amphipathic alpha-helical region which is exhibited on the outer surface of the amino-terminal lobe of lactoferrin. Synthetic peptides homologous to this region exhibited potent antibacterial activity against a selected range of both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. An analog synthesized with methionine substituted for proline at position 26, whi...