Investigating the Effect of Proline Linkers on Hybrid Antimicrobial Peptide Structure and Activity

Abstract

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been proposed as alternatives to conventional antibiotics in efforts to design more effective treatments for antibiotic resistant bacterial infections. AMPs are found in many organisms, including humans, as part of the innate immune response. One method of designing novel AMPs is to connect two individual AMPs to form a hybrid AMP. Often the individual AMPs in a hybrid are connected by a linker consisting of one or more amino acids. Previous studies have shown that some hybrid AMPs have increased antibacterial activity and reduced cytotoxicity to eukaryotic cells.