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Updated: May 4, 2026

Production and Visualization of Bacterial Spheroplasts and Protoplasts to Characterize Antimicrobial Peptide Localization
Published on: August 11, 2018
Characterization of a possible uptake mechanism of selective antibacterial peptides
Carlos Polanco1, José Lino Samaniego1, Jorge Alberto Castañón-González2
1Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Anáhuac, Huixquilucan Estado de México, México; Departamento de Matemáticas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México.
Abstract:
Selective antibacterial peptides containing less than 30 amino acid residues, cationic, with amphipathic properties, have been the subject of several studies due to their active participation and beneficial effects in strengthening the immune system of all living organisms. This manuscript reports the results of a comparison between the group of selective antibacterial peptides and another group called "cell penetrating peptides". An important number of the selective antibacterial peptides are cell penetrating peptides, suggesting that their toxicity is related to their uptake mechanism. The verification of this observation also includes the adaptation of a method previously published, called Polarity index, which reproduces and confirms the action of this new set of peptides. The efficiency of this method was verified based on four different databases, yielding a high score. The verification was based exclusively on the peptides already reported in the databases which have been experimentally verified.
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