Host Defence Peptides (HDPs): investigating the structure-to-function relationship through bio-physical techniques
type: CreativeWork
description: During last decades, more and more microorganisms resistant to conventional antibiotics were isolated while few new antimicrobial drugs were developed. The urgent need for novel efficient antibiotics led a great attention on cationic host defense peptides (HDP) since their discovery in 1980s. The role of these molecules in the defense of organism against pathogens attack, together with their high selectivity for bacterial cells over the eukaryotic ones, made them attractive candidates for the development of a new class of antimicrobial drugs. At present, a vast range of both natural and synthetic HDPs sequences are reported in the literature but they still present remarkable limitations to an effective applicability in vivo, such as the high sensitivity to proteases and strong activity reduction in the presence of physiological electrolytes concentration. A lot of effort have been put into improving their pharmacokinetics in order to develop new antimicrobial drugs based on their sequences. The present Ph.D. work is focused on the elucidation of the structure-to-function relationships of three different peptides, chosen as representative of different HDP categories. Esculentin-1b(1-18) is the ‘classic’ natural antimicrobial peptide (AMP), Plasticin-L1, is an immunomodulatory peptide devoid of direct bactericidal activity, and a group of four synthetic peptide analogues based on a semi-synthetic dendrimeric and lipidated peptide called SB056. The latter, in particular, represent an innovative class of peptides, whose structural features, three-dimensional folding and mode of action are absolutely peculiar and almost completely unknown before this project started. The interesting and multidisciplinary field of HDPs is presented in the first chapter. The origins, the structural features and the modes of action proposed for these compounds in the literature are briefly summarized. A brief excursus on the limits of their applicability in the clinical practice and the str…
abstract: During last decades, more and more microorganisms resistant to conventional antibiotics were isolated while few new antimicrobial drugs were developed. The urgent need for novel efficient antibiotics led a great attention on cationic host defense peptides (HDP) since their discovery in 1980s. The role of these molecules in the defense of organism against pathogens attack, together with their high selectivity for bacterial cells over the eukaryotic ones, made them attractive candidates for the development of a new class of antimicrobial drugs. At present, a vast range of both natural and synthetic HDPs sequences are reported in the literature but they still present remarkable limitations to an effective applicability in vivo, such as the high sensitivity to proteases and strong activity reduction in the presence of physiological electrolytes concentration. A lot of effort have been put into improving their pharmacokinetics in order to develop new antimicrobial drugs based on their sequences. The present Ph.D. work is focused on the elucidation of the structure-to-function relationships of three different peptides, chosen as representative of different HDP categories. Esculentin-1b(1-18) is the ‘classic’ natural antimicrobial peptide (AMP), Plasticin-L1, is an immunomodulatory peptide devoid of direct bactericidal activity, and a group of four synthetic peptide analogues based on a semi-synthetic dendrimeric and lipidated peptide called SB056. The latter, in particular, represent an innovative class of peptides, whose structural features, three-dimensional folding and mode of action are absolutely peculiar and almost completely unknown before this project started. The interesting and multidisciplinary field of HDPs is presented in the first chapter. The origins, the structural features and the modes of action proposed for these compounds in the literature are briefly summarized. A brief excursus on the limits of their applicability in the clinical practice and the str…
author: MANZO, GIORGIA
language: eng
keywords: Host Defence Peptides, membrane models, modelli di membrana, structure-function relationship, struttura-funzione, Settore CHIM/02 - Chimica Fisica
date published: 2014-04-10
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:30:01Z
provider: Università di Cagliari
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Università degli Studi di Cagliari

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11584/266428