Spotlight on the Selected New Antimicrobial Innate Immune Peptides Discovered During 2015-2019

Antibiotic resistance is a global issue and new anti-microbials are required.

Anti-microbial peptides are important players of host innate immune systems that prevent infections. Due to their ability to eliminate drug-resistant pathogens, AMPs are promising candidates for developing the next generation of anti-microbials.

The anti-microbial peptide database provides a useful tool for searching, predicting, and designing new AMPs. In the period from 2015-2019, ~500 new natural peptides have been registered.

This article highlights a selected set of new AMP members with interesting properties. Teixobactin is a cell wall inhibiting peptide antibiotic, while darobactin inhibits a chaperone and translocator for outer membrane proteins. Remarkably, cOB1, a sex pheromone from commensal enterococci, restricts the growth of multidrug-resistant Enterococcus faecalis in the gut at a picomolar concentration. A novel proline-rich AMP has been found in the plant Brassica napus. A shrimp peptide MjPen- II comprises three different sequence domains: serine-rich, proline-rich, and cysteine-rich regions. Surprisingly, an amphibian peptide urumin specifically inhibits H1 hemagglutinin-bearing influenza A virus. Defensins are abundant and typically consist of three pairs of intramolecular disulfide bonds. However, rat rattusin dimerizes via forming five pairs of intermolecular disulfide bonds. While human LL-37 can be induced by vitamin D, vitamin A induces the expression of resistin-like molecule alpha (RELMα) in mice. The isolation and characterization of an alternative human cathelicidin peptide, TLN-58, substantiates the concept of one gene multiple peptides. The involvement of a fly AMP nemuri in sleep induction may promote the research on the relationship between sleep and infection control.

The functional roles of AMPs continue to grow and the general term "innate immune peptides" becomes useful. These discoveries widen our view on the anti-microbial peptides and may open new opportunities for developing novel peptide therapeutics for different applications.