Peptide consensus sequence determination for the enhancement of the antimicrobial activity and selectivity of antimicrobial peptides.

The rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria is causing a serious threat to the world's human population. Recent reports have identified bacterial strains displaying pan drug resistance against antibiotics and generating fears among medical health specialists that humanity is on the dawn of entering a post-antibiotics era. Global research is currently focused on expanding the lifetime of current antibiotics and the development of new antimicrobial agents to tackle the problem of antimicrobial resistance.

Enhanced Antimicrobial Activity of AamAP1-Lysine, a Novel Synthetic Peptide Analog Derived from the Scorpion Venom Peptide AamAP1.

There is great interest in the development of antimicrobial peptides as a potentially novel class of antimicrobial agents. Several structural determinants are responsible for the antimicrobial and cytolytic activity of antimicrobial peptides. In our study, a new synthetic peptide analog, AamAP1-Lysine from the naturally occurring scorpion venom antimicrobial peptide AamAP1, was designed by modifying the parent peptide in order to increase the positive charge and optimize other physico-chemical parameters involved in antimicrobial activity.