Journal
PARASITOLOGY RESEARCH
Volume 113, Issue 5, Pages 1971-1976Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00436-014-3847-3
Keywords
Leishmania; Antimicrobial peptide; Pexiganan; Apoptosis
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Antimicrobial peptides are increasingly being explored as alternative agents for therapy against the parasitic protozoan Leishmania. Previously, we reported that the synthetic magainin analog, pexiganan, induced apoptosis of surface protease-deficient Leishmania. Here, we report the development of an arginine-rich variant of this peptide which has reduced protease susceptibility and enhanced activity against wild type Leishmania in vitro. This peptide induces calcium delocalization and caspase 3/7 activity indicative of apoptosis, demonstrating that structural modification of pexiganan leads to drastic changes in biologic activity against Leishmania.
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