The emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria has severely increased the burden on the global health system, and such pathogenic infections are considered a great threat to human well-being. Antimicrobial peptides, due to their potent antimicrobial activity and low possibility of inducing resistance, are increasingly attracting great interest. Herein, a novel dermaseptin peptide, named Dermaseptin-SS1 (SS1), was identified from a skin-secretion-derived cDNA library of the South/Central American tarsier leaf frog, Phyllomedusa tarsius, using a 'shotgun' cloning strategy. The chemically synthesized peptide SS1 was found to be broadly effective against Gram-negative bacteria with low haemolytic activity in vitro. A designed synthetic analogue of SS1, named peptide 14V5K, showed lower salt sensitivity and more rapid bacteria killing compared to SS1. Both peptides employed a membrane-targeting mechanism to kill Escherichia coli. The antiproliferative activity of SS1 and its analogues against lung cancer cell lines was found to be significant.
Keywords: analogue design; antimicrobial peptide; dermaseptin; molecular cloning.