Development of protease resistant and non-cytotoxic Jelleine analogs with enhanced broad spectrum antimicrobial efficacy

Short systemic half- life of Antimicrobial Peptides (AMP) is one of the major bottlenecks that limits their successful commercialization as therapeutics. In this work, we have designed analogs of the natural AMP Jelleine, obtained from royal jelly of apis mellifera. Among the designed peptides, J3 and J4 were the most potent with broad spectrum activities against a varied class of ESKAPE pathogens and fungi C. albicans. All the developed peptides were more effective against Gram-negative bacteria in comparison to the Gram-positive pathogens, and were especially effective against P. aeruginosa and C. albicans.J3 and J4 were completely trypsin resistant and serum stable, while retaining the non-cytotoxicity of the parent Jelleine, Jc. The designed peptides were membranolytic in their mode of action. CD and MD simulations in the presence of bilayers, established that J3 and J4 were non-structured even upon membrane binding and suggested that biological properties of the AMPs were innocent of any specific secondary structural requirements. Enhancement of charge to increase the antimicrobial potency, controlling the hydrophobic-hydrophilic balance to maintain non-cytotoxicity and induction of unnatural amino acid residues to impart protease resistance, remains some of the fundamental principles in the design of more effective antimicrobial therapeutics of the future, which may help combat the quickly rising menace of antimicrobial resistance in the microbes.

Removal of pain-relieving drugs from aqueous solutions using Octolig and selected metalloligs

The possibility of removing certain pharmaceuticals (acetaminophen and naproxen) from water was tested using Octolig, a commercially available material with polyethylenediimine moieties covalently attached to high-surface area silica gel. In addition, the efficacy of two transition metals (cupric and ferric) derivatives of Octolig was tested. Previously amoxicillin had been successfully subjected to column chromatography for removal by means of ion encapsulation, the effectiveness of which would depend upon having appropriate anionic functional groups. Both pharmaceuticals were removed by passage over Octolig columns, though with less effectiveness than was achieved previously with xanthenylbenzenes or selected food dyes. Somewhat greater removal, ca 90%, was achieved using Cuprilig, the copper(II) derivative, but not with Ferrilig the iron(III) derivative, perhaps because the hydroxide counter ion was more closely associated with the transition metal ion and was not available to assist in proton removal.