Abstract
Natural antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are potential antibiotic alternatives. Marine crustaceans are thought to generate more powerful and various AMPs to protect themselves from infections caused by pathogenic microorganisms in their complex aquatic habitat, thus becoming one of the most promising sources of AMPs or other bioactive substances. In the study, a novel protein was identified as an interacting partner of male-specific AMP SCY2 in Scylla paramamosain and named scyreprocin. The recombinant product of scyreprocin (rScyreprocin) was successfully expressed in Escherichia coli. rScyreprocin exerted potent, broad-spectrum antifungal, antibacterial, and anti-biofilm activity (minimum inhibitory concentrations from 0.5 to 32 μM) through differential modes of action, including disruption of cell membrane integrity and induction of cell apoptosis, and has rapid bactericidal (in 0.5–2 h) and fungicidal (in 8–10 h) kinetics. In addition to its fungicidal activity against planktonic fungi, rScyreprocin also prevented the adhesion of fungal cells, inhibited biofilm formation, and eradicated the mature biofilms. Moreover, rScyreprocin showed a profound inhibitory effect on spore germination of Aspergillus spp. (minimum inhibitory concentrations from 4 to 8 μM). This peptide was not cytotoxic to murine and mammalian cells and could increase the survival rate of Oryzias melastigma under the challenge of Vibrio harveyi. Taken together, the novel AMP scyreprocin would be a promising alternative to antibiotics used in aquaculture and medicine.
Highlights
Since antibiotics revolutionized medicine in the early 20th century (Gualerzi et al, 2013), antibiotic medications have been widely used in clinical treatments and prevention of microbial infections and feedstuff (Brown et al, 2017)
More than 3,000 peptides have been registered in the Antimicrobial Peptide Database (APD), and most of the identified and well-studied antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are from terrestrial animals (Wang et al, 2015)
To adapt to the extreme conditions of their habitats, marine animals may produce marine natural products (MNPs) with remarkable diversity in structure compared with terrestrial counterparts
Summary
Since antibiotics revolutionized medicine in the early 20th century (Gualerzi et al, 2013), antibiotic medications have been widely used in clinical treatments and prevention of microbial infections and feedstuff (Brown et al, 2017). Inappropriate treatments and excessive use of antibiotics have led to the constant emergence of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms (Santos and Ramos, 2018; Ghosh et al, 2020). In recent years, these antibiotic-resistant pathogens have caused an increasing number of infections, such as pneumonia (Chalmers et al, 2013), septicemia. Healthcareassociated infections (HAIs), especially medical device HAIs caused by biofilms, are of great concern due to the enormous threat they posed and the corresponding financial burden (Busscher et al, 2012; Kurtz et al, 2012; Zmistowski et al, 2013), which make them a public health challenge to be addressed. Studies focusing on antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have rekindled the possibility of seeking more promising anti-pathogenic drugs in addition to traditional antibiotics (Hancock and Sahl, 2006; Haney et al, 2017)
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