The antimicrobial peptide parabutoporin competes with p47 phox as a PKC-substrate and inhibits NADPH oxidase in human neutrophils

Abstract

We investigated parabutoporin (PP), an antimicrobial scorpion peptide, to understand its inhibition on NADPH oxidase in human PMN. We show that PP is a good substrate for all PKC-isotypes, implicated in the activation of NADPH oxidase, and acts as a potent competitive inhibitor of in vitro p47 phox-phosphorylation by PKC-α, -βI, -βII and -δ, but not PKC-ζ. In PMN, PP also inhibits the PMA-stimulated phosphorylation of p47 phox and its subsequent translocation. In contrast, PP affects the PKC-independent activation to a much lesser degree. This indicates that PP inhibits the activation of NADPH oxidase at submicromolar concentrations in a strongly PKC-dependent manner.