Objective(s): Polyethylenimine (PEI) is one of the most widely used polymers in gene delivery. The aim of this study was to modify PEI by replacing some of its primary amines with Brevinin 2R (BR-2R) peptide in order to increase the efficiency of gene delivery.Materials and Methods: Polyethylenimine was modified by BR-2R peptide by two d...

Frog skin constitutes a rich source of peptides with broad spectrum antimicrobial activity against strains of antibioticresistant bacteria and fungi and several hundred such peptides from diverse species have been described. However, their therapeutic potential remains to be realized and no anti-infective peptide based upon their structures has yet been adopted in clinical practice. This review...

Antimicrobial peptides represent the most characterized and diverse class of peptides within the defensive skin secretions of anuran amphibians. With an ever expanding database of primary structures, the current accepted rules for nomenclature have become increasingly difficult to apply to peptides whose primary structural attributes are either unique or that fall between those that define exis...

Objective/Background: Cancer is one of the leading causes death in world. Therefore, there an urgent need to develop new drugs for fighting this disease. Recent studies have reported that antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) can be used as anticancer drugs. Methods: We discovered brevinin-1EG, a novel peptide from Pelophylax nigromaculatus, using gene cloning techniques. Brevinin-1EG was then investig...

The Cascades frog Rana cascadae belongs to the Amerana (or Rana boylii) group that includes six additional species from western North America (R. aurora, R. boylii, R. draytonii, R. luteiventris, R. muscosa, and R. pretiosa). R. cascadae is particularly susceptible to pathogenic microorganisms in the environment and populations have declined precipitously in parts of its range so that the prote...

The emergence of strains of the human pathogen Candida albicans with resistance to commonly used antibiotics has necessitated a search for new types of antifungal agents. Six peptides with antimicrobial activity were isolated from norepinephrine-stimulated skin secretions from the foothill yellow-legged frog Rana boylii. Brevinin-1BYa (FLPILASLAA10KFGPKLF CLV20TKKC) was particularly potent agai...