It has been unclear to which antimicrobial activities (e.g., anti-gram-positive bacterial, anti-gram-negative bacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, and antiviral activities) of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) a given physiochemical property matters most. This is the first computational study using large-scale AMPs to examine the relationships between antimicrobial activities and two major physiochemical properties of AMPs-amphipathicity and net charge. The results showed that among all kinds of antimicrobial activities, amphipathicity and net charge best differentiated between AMPs with and without anti-gram-negative bacterial activities. In terms of amphipathicity and charge, all the AMPs whose activities were significantly associated with amphipathicity and net charge were alike except those with anti-gram-positive bacterial activities. Furthermore, the higher the amphipathic value, the greater the proportion of AMPs possessing both antibacterial and antifungal activities. This dose-response-like pattern suggests a possible causal relationship-dual antibacterial and antifungal activities of AMPs may be attributable to amphipathicity. These novel findings could be useful for identifying potent AMPs computationally.
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6150348 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules22112037 | DOI Listing |
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