Yu SS, Zhao ZH, Gong XF, Fan XL, Lin ZH, Chen J. Antimicrobial and immunomodulatory activity of beta-defensin from the
Chinese spiny frog (Quasipaa spinosa).
Dev Comp Immunol 2022;
126:104264. [PMID:
34551359 DOI:
10.1016/j.dci.2021.104264]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2021] [Revised: 09/18/2021] [Accepted: 09/18/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The β-defensins are important components of the vertebrate innate immune system. While mammalian β-defensins have wide-ranging antibacterial and immunomodulatory activities, those of amphibians remain largely uncharacterised. In this study, β-defensin cDNA was identified from the skin transcriptome of the Chinese spiny frog Quasipaa spinosa. This β-defensin (QS-BD) consists of a signal and a mature peptide. Sequence alignments with other amphibian β-defensins showed conservation of the functional mature peptide and that its closest relative is β-defensin from Zhangixalus puerensis. Synthetic QS-BD showed antibacterial activity against Vibrio vulnificus, Vibrio harveyi, Streptococcus iniae, and Aeromonas hydrophila. QS-BD showed bactericidal activity by destroying the cell membrane integrity, but did not hydrolyse genomic DNA. QS-BD treatment promoted respiratory bursts and upregulated the expression of interleukin-1β and tumour necrosis factor-α in the murine leukemic monocyte/macrophage cell line RAW264.7. This is the first demonstration of immunomodulatory activity by an amphibian β-defensin.
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