The comparison of biological properties of L- and D-enantiomeric antimicrobial peptides

Abstract

Antibiotics have been used widely for the treatment of bacterial infections for over half a century. However, the emergence of resistance to antibiotics has aroused public health concern, leading to the development of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) as potential alternative therapeutic agents against bacterial infections. AMPs are naturally found in many species and have important roles in our innate immune defense systems. AMPs are usually cationic amphipathic peptides with membrane destabilizing property. They have a relatively broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity and pathogens are less likely to develop resistance against AMPs. The major challenge of using AMPs as therapeutic agents is their toxicity towards mammalian cells. The biological stability of AMPs to protease in human body is another concern. To address the latter problem, instead of the naturally occur L-enantiomers, Denantiomeric AMPs were introduced to enhance their stability. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that the D-enantiomeric AMPs are more resistant than the Lenantiomeric AMPs against proteolytic degradation. Three pairs of synthetic D-/LAMPs (D-LAO160-P13/LAO160-P12; D-LAO160-H/LAO160-H; and D-LAK-120-HP13/LAK-120-HP13) were employed to test for their stability when treated with trypsin, serum and gastric fluid, and the samples were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Generally, all the D-enantiomeric AMPs were found to be resistant towards proteolysis. Besides, to compare the cytotoxicity of D-/LAMPs, MTT and LDH assays of the D/L-LAK120-HP13 pair were carried out on two different cell lines, A549 cells (human lung adenocarcinoma epithelial cells) and RAW264.7 cells (mouse macrophage cells). Significant difference in cytotoxicity of D-LAK120-HP13 and LAK120-HP13 on RAW264.7 cells were obtained from MTT assay, but not in LDH assays or on A549 cells. Further analysis has to be done to validate the findings obtained from this research.