Discovery and Characterization of a New Crustin Antimicrobial Peptide from Amphibalanus amphitrite.

Wei Zhang,Chenjing Shang,Wenyi Li,Ting Ye,Qiao Zhou,Jun Zhang,Ying Xu,Zhangli Hu,Xiaohang Xu

doi:10.3390/pharmaceutics14020413

Wei Zhang, Chenjing Shang + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics14020413

Copy DOI

Abstract

Crustins are an antimicrobial peptide (AMP) family that plays an important role in innate immunity in crustaceans. It is important to discover new AMPs from natural sources to expand the current database. Here, we identified and characterized a new crustin family member, named AaCrus1, from Amphibalanus amphitrite. AaCrus1 shares high identity (48.10%) with PvCrus, a Type I crustin of Penaeus vannamei that possesses a whey acidic protein (WAP) domain. AaCrus1 contains 237 amino acids and eight cysteine residues forming conserved ‘four-disulfide core’ structure. Our recombinant AaCrus1 (rAaCrus 1) could inhibit the growth of two Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus sp. T2) and four Gram-negative bacteria (Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio harveyi, Vibrio anguillarum, Vibrio alginolyticus) with a minimum inhibitory concentration of 3.5–28 μM. It can further induce agglutination of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. rAaCrus1 can bind to bacteria and damage bacterial cell membranes. Furthermore, rAaCrus1 disrupted biofilm development of S. aureus and V. parahaemolyticus. Our discovery and characterization of this new crustin can be further optimized as a good alternative to antibiotics.

Highlights

The advent of antibiotics effectively treats diseases caused by bacterial infections
Propidium iodide (PI) cannot pass through living cell membranes, but it can pass through damaged cell membranes to stain the nucleus, as we described in previous reports [39,40]
After the construction and comparison of the protein database of crustins of A. amphitrite, we discovered an atypical crustin consisting of 257 amino acids, named AaCrus1

Summary

Introduction

The advent of antibiotics effectively treats diseases caused by bacterial infections. Antibiotics are used in aquaculture to treat pathogenic infections in aquaculture animals. Infection is one of the main diseases hindering the development of aquaculture, and some Vibrio sp. Can cause serious foodborne illness in humans and animals [1]. The overdosed antibiotics and global interconnectedness has accelerated the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains and ecological pollution. The World Health Organization has urgently called upon scientists to find novel effective alternatives to antibiotics. Drug-resistant Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains have been detected in China, South Korea and other places [1]. As an important part of the biological innate immune system, AMPs have broad-spectrum antibacterial properties, which have a mild inhibitory or killing effect on Gram-negative

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion