Abstract
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have recently gained attention for their potential to treat diseases related to bacterial and viral infections, as many traditional antimicrobial drugs have reduced efficacy in treating these infections due to the increased prevalence of drug-resistant pathogens. PLG0206, an engineered cationic antibiotic peptide that is 24 residues long, has been designed to address some limitations of other natural AMPs, such as toxicity and limited activity due to pH and ion concentrations. Nonclinical studies have shown that PLG0206 is highly selective for targeting bacterial cells and is not toxic to human blood cells. Antibiofilm experiments demonstrated that PLG0206 is effective at reducing both biotic and abiotic biofilm burdens following direct biofilm contact. PLG0206 has rapid and broad-spectrum activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria that are implicated as etiologic agents in periprosthetic joint infections, including multidrug-resistant ESKAPE pathogens and colistin-resistant isolates. A recent first-in-human study demonstrated that PLG0206 is well tolerated and safe as an intravenous infusion in healthy volunteers. Studies are planned to determine the efficacy of PLG0206 in patients for the treatment of periprosthetic joint infections. This review summarizes the chemistry, pharmacology, and microbiology of PLG0206 and explores its current preclinical, clinical, and regulatory status.
Highlights
Antibiotics have been used as successful treatments for many bacterial diseases, but the increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms is a major public health concern
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a class of antimicrobial effector molecules of 10–50 amino acids in length that contain an amphipathic structure as a consensus motif and are found in many species across all kingdoms of life
The proteolytic activity associated with red blood cells is distinct from that of serum proteases and must be considered for any AMPs under development, as quicker degradation can result in loss of activity [24]
Summary
Antibiotics have been used as successful treatments for many bacterial diseases, but the increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms is a major public health concern. Engineered cationic antibiotic peptides (eCAPs) such as PLG0206— known as WLBU2—have been designed to mitigate the shortcomings of natural AMPs and exhibit a Antibiotics 2022, 11, 41. The interaction of PLG0206 with the bacterial cell membrane leads to lipid phase consolidation, resulting in localized stiffening [22], ordering, and alteration of the thickness of the membranes [21]. This disruption of the bacterial cell membrane results in lipid headgroup spacing mismatch and lowering of the energy barrier to ion flow across the membrane
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