Article
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Antifungal Activity of Brilacidin, a Nonpeptide Host Defense Molecule
Version 1
: Received: 28 February 2024 / Approved: 28 February 2024 / Online: 29 February 2024 (09:16:28 CET)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Larwood, D.J.; Stevens, D.A. Antifungal Activity of Brilacidin, a Nonpeptide Host Defense Molecule. Antibiotics 2024, 13, 405. Larwood, D.J.; Stevens, D.A. Antifungal Activity of Brilacidin, a Nonpeptide Host Defense Molecule. Antibiotics 2024, 13, 405.
Abstract
Natural host defensins, also sometimes termed antimicrobial peptides, are evolutionarily conserved. They have been studied as antimicrobials, but some pharmaceutical properties, undesirable for clinical use, led to the development of synthetic molecules with constructed peptide arrangements and/or peptides not found in nature. The leading development currently is synthetic small molecule nonpeptide mimetics, whose physical properties capture the characteristics of the natural molecules, and share their biological attributes. We studied brilacidin, an arylamide of this type, for its activity in vitro against fungi (40 clinical isolates, 20 species) that the World Health Organization has highlighted as problem human pathogens. We find antifungal activity at low concentrations for many pathogens, which indicates further screening for activity, particularly in vivo, is justified to evaluate this compound, and other mimetics, as attractive leads for development of effective antifungal agents.
Keywords
brilacidin; synthetic nonpeptide mimetics; antifungal activity; defensins; antimicrobial peptides; AMP
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Immunology and Microbiology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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