Plant Antimicrobial Peptides as Potential Anticancer Agents

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are part of the innate immune defense mechanism of many organisms and are promising candidates to treat infections caused by pathogenic bacteria to animals and humans. AMPs also display anticancer activities because of their ability to inactivate a wide range of cancer cells. Cancer remains a cause of high morbidity and mortality worldwide. Therefore, the development of methods for its control is desirable. Attractive alternatives include plant AMP thionins, defensins, and cyclotides, which have anticancer activities. Here, we provide an overview of plant AMPs anticancer activities, with an emphasis on their mode of action, their selectivity, and their efficacy.

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Antimicrobial Peptides as a Major Part of the Innate Immune Defense at the Ocular Surface

Research Projects in Dry Eye Syndrome - Developments in Ophthalmology ◽

10.1159/000315016 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 16-22 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Fabian Garreis ◽

Maria Gottschalt ◽

Friedrich P. Paulsen

Keyword(s):

Antimicrobial Peptides ◽

Ocular Surface ◽

Major Part ◽

Immune Defense ◽

Innate Immune ◽

Innate Immune Defense

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Antimicrobial Peptides as Anticancer Agents: Functional Properties and Biological Activities

Molecules ◽

10.3390/molecules25122850 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 25 (12) ◽

pp. 2850 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Anna Lucia Tornesello ◽

Antonella Borrelli ◽

Luigi Buonaguro ◽

Franco Maria Buonaguro ◽

Maria Lina Tornesello

Keyword(s):

Antimicrobial Peptides ◽

Cancer Cells ◽

Anticancer Agents ◽

Plasma Membranes ◽

Tumor Antigens ◽

Human Cancer ◽

Biological Activities ◽

Immune Defense ◽

Anticancer Activities ◽

Host Defense Peptides

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), or host defense peptides, are small cationic or amphipathic molecules produced by prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms that play a key role in the innate immune defense against viruses, bacteria and fungi. AMPs have either antimicrobial or anticancer activities. Indeed, cationic AMPs are able to disrupt microbial cell membranes by interacting with negatively charged phospholipids. Moreover, several peptides are capable to trigger cytotoxicity of human cancer cells by binding to negatively charged phosphatidylserine moieties which are selectively exposed on the outer surface of cancer cell plasma membranes. In addition, some AMPs, such as LTX-315, have shown to induce release of tumor antigens and potent damage associated molecular patterns by causing alterations in the intracellular organelles of cancer cells. Given the recognized medical need of novel anticancer drugs, AMPs could represent a potential source of effective therapeutic agents, either alone or in combination with other small molecules, in oncology. In this review we summarize and describe the properties and the mode of action of AMPs as well as the strategies to increase their selectivity toward specific cancer cells.

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Roles of human antimicrobial peptides in innate immune defense at the ocular surface: arming and alarming corneal and conjunctival epithelial cells

Acta Ophthalmologica ◽

10.1111/j.1755-3768.2011.3142.x ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 89 (s248) ◽

pp. 0-0

Author(s):

F PAULSEN ◽

F GARREIS

Keyword(s):

Epithelial Cells ◽

Antimicrobial Peptides ◽

Ocular Surface ◽

Immune Defense ◽

Innate Immune ◽

Innate Immune Defense ◽

Conjunctival Epithelial Cells

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An innate immune defense mechanism based on the recognition of CpG motifs in microbial DNA

Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine ◽

10.1016/s0022-2143(96)90004-9 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 128 (2) ◽

pp. 128-133 ◽

Cited By ~ 72

Author(s):

Arthur M. Krieg

Keyword(s):

Defense Mechanism ◽

Immune Defense ◽

Innate Immune ◽

Cpg Motifs ◽

Innate Immune Defense ◽

Microbial Dna

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Innate immune defense of the nail unit by antimicrobial peptides

Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology ◽

10.1016/j.jaad.2003.09.010 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 50 (3) ◽

pp. 343-348 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Robert A. Dorschner ◽

Belen Lopez-Garcia ◽

Jennifer Massie ◽

Choll Kim ◽

Richard L. Gallo

Keyword(s):

Antimicrobial Peptides ◽

Immune Defense ◽

Innate Immune ◽

Innate Immune Defense

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Synthesis and Antibacterial / Anticancer Activities of Compounds Containing Pyrazole Ring Linked to Piperazines

Current Bioactive Compounds ◽

10.2174/1573407215666190111124513 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 419-431

Author(s):

Kishore K. Valluri ◽

Tejeswara R. Allaka ◽

IV Kasi Viswanath ◽

Nagaraju PVVS

Keyword(s):

Cell Line ◽

Cancer Cell ◽

Anticancer Agents ◽

Cancer Cell Line ◽

Pyrazole Ring ◽

Therapeutic Effects ◽

Anticancer Activities ◽

Human Colon Cancer ◽

Parent Molecule ◽

Wide Range

Background: Many pyrazole piperazine derivatives are known to exhibit a wide range, thus being attractive for the drug design and synthesis of interesting class of widely studied heterocyclic compounds. It is therefore necessary to devote continuing effort for the identification and development of New Chemical Entities (NCEs) as potential antibacterial and anticancer agents to address serious health problems. Methods: A series of new compounds containing pyrazole ring linked to a piperazine hydrochloride moiety were synthesized and screened for their antibacterial activity, cytotoxicity of novel scaffolds are described by variation in therapeutic effects of parent molecule. The structure variants were characterized by using a blend of spectroscopic 1H NMR, 13C NMR, IR, Mass and chromatographic techniques. Results: When tested for in vitro antibacterial and anticancer activities, several of these compounds showed good activities. The target compounds 9b, 9a and 9e exhibited a high degree of anticancer activity against human colon cancer cell line Caco-2 and human breast cancer cell line MDAMB231. Further, 9a, 9b, 9d, and 9h showed better activity towards four medically relevant organisms; Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella Species compared to CPF. In the present investigation, cheminfomatics tools Molinspiration, 2003 and MolSoft, 2007 for the prediction of insilico molecular properties and drug likeness for the target compounds 9a-h was evaluated and positive results were observed. Conclusion: Our study revealed that the molecular framework presented here could be a useful template for the identification of novel small molecules as promising antibacterial/ anticancer agents.

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Synthesis and characterization of a new series of thiadiazole derivatives as potential anticancer agents

Heterocyclic Communications ◽

10.1515/hc-2020-0002 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 6-13 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ulviye Acar Çevik ◽

Derya Osmaniye ◽

Serkan Levent ◽

Begüm Nurpelin Sağlik ◽

Betül Kaya Çavuşoğlu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Anticancer Agents ◽

Biological Activities ◽

Cancer Cell Line ◽

Chemotherapeutic Agents ◽

Anticancer Activities ◽

Normal Tissues ◽

H Nmr ◽

Wide Range ◽

Thiadiazole Derivatives ◽

Low Efficiency

AbstractCancer is one of the most common causes of death in the world. Despite the importance of combating cancer in healthcare systems and research centers, toxicity in normal tissues and the low efficiency of anticancer drugs are major problems in chemotherapy. Nowadays the aim of many medical research projects is to discover new safer and more effective anticancer agents. 1,3,4-Thiadiazole compounds are important fragments in medicinal chemistry because of their wide range of biological activities, including anticancer activities. The aim of this study was to determine the capacity of newly synthesized 1,3,4-thiadiazole compounds as chemotherapeutic agents. The structures of the obtained compounds were elucidated using 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and mass spectrometry. Although the thiadiazole derivatives did not prove to be significantly cytotoxic to the tumour tissue cultures, compound 4i showed activity against the C6 rat brain cancer cell line (IC50 0.097 mM) at the tested concentrations.

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The roles of grouper TANK in innate immune defense against iridovirus and nodavirus infections

Fish & Shellfish Immunology ◽

10.1016/j.fsi.2020.06.017 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 104 ◽

pp. 506-516

Author(s):

Jingguang Wei ◽

Chen Li ◽

Jisheng Ou ◽

Xin Zhang ◽

Zetian Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Immune Defense ◽

Innate Immune ◽

Innate Immune Defense

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Antimicrobial peptides in patients with anorexia nervosa: comparison with healthy controls and the impact of weight gain

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-79302-1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Marie-Christin Bendix ◽

Michael Stephan ◽

Mariel Nöhre ◽

Wally Wünsch-Leiteritz ◽

Hagen Schmidt ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Anorexia Nervosa ◽

Weight Gain ◽

Antimicrobial Peptides ◽

Pathogenic Bacteria ◽

Innate Immune ◽

Effect Sizes ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Clinical Observations ◽

The Impact

AbstractClinical observations show that patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) are surprisingly free from infectious diseases. There is evidence from studies in Drosophila melanogaster that starvation leads to an increased expression of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). AMPs are part of the innate immune system and protect human surfaces from colonization with pathogenic bacteria, viruses and fungi. We compared the expression of AMPs between patients with AN and healthy controls (HC) and investigated the influence of weight gain. Using a standardized skin rinsing method, quantitative determination of the AMPs psoriasin and RNase 7 was carried out by ELISA. Even though non-significant, effect sizes revealed slightly higher AMP concentrations in HC. After a mean weight gain of 2.0 body mass index points, the concentration of psoriasin on the forehead of patients with AN increased significantly. We could not confirm our hypotheses of higher AMP concentrations in patients with AN that decrease after weight gain. On the contrary, weight gain seems to be associated with increasing AMP concentrations.

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