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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Production and Testing of Antimicrobial Peptides and Their Mimics
Published on: April 10, 2026
[Antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity of polypeptide dhvar4]
Xia Gao1, Xiao-feng Lu, Sheng-fu Li
1Lab of Transplant Engineering and Immunology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Objective:
To investigate the antibacterial activity and the cytotoxicity of polypeptide dhvar4.
Methods:
Solid-phase synthesized dhvar4 was manufactured by MeiLian Biotech Co. Ltd.; we evaluated its antibacterial effect, using the growth curve of bacteria after the bacteria being treated with different concentration of dhvar4. The cytotoxicity of dhvar4 on L-02, ECV-304, 293, 3T3 cells was investigated by MTT assay, and human erythrocytes were subimitted to hemolytic assay.
Results:
dhvar4 inhibited the growth of Enterococcus faecium 36418 and Staphylococcus aureus BAA42 only at the concentration of 4 microg/ml. The viability of mammalian cells remained 68%-92% even when the concentration of dhvar4 reached 150 microg/ml. The LD50 (median lethal dose) was determined to be higher than 150 microg/ml. And very low hemolytic activity of dhvar4 was detected even at the highest protein concentration tested (180 microg/ml).
Conclusion:
dhvar4 possesses antibacterial activity and has little cytotoxicity to mammalian cells. These results suggest that dhvar4 has great potential in the development of
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