Hydrophilic Linear Peptide with Histidine and Lysine Residues as a Key Factor Affecting Antifungal Activity

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 19; no. 12; p. 3781
• Main Authors: Park, Seong-Cheol, Kim, Jin-Young, Kim, Eun-Ji, Cheong, Gang-Won, Lee, Yongjae, Choi, Wonkyun, Lee, Jung Ro, Jang, Mi-Kyeong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 28.11.2018; MDPI
• Subjects: Amino acids; Antibiotics; Antifungal activity; Antifungal agents; Antimicrobial agents; antimicrobial peptide; Apoptosis; Cytosol; Cytotoxicity; Design; Drug resistance; Embryo fibroblasts; Erythrocytes; Fungi; Fungicides; Histidine; Immune system; Immunocompromised hosts; Lipids; Localization; Lysine; Membranes; Mitochondria; Pathogens; Peptides; reactive oxygen species; Sterols; apoptosis; drug-resistance; antimicrobial peptide; antifungal activity; reactive oxygen species
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms19123781

Increases in the numbers of immunocompromised patients and the emergence of drug-resistance fungal pathogens have led to the need for new, safe, efficacious antifungal agents. In this study, we designed a histidine-lysine-lysine (HKK) motif and synthesized six HKK peptides with repetitions of the motif. These peptides showed length-dependent antifungal activity against drug-susceptible and drug-resistant fungal pathogens via membranolytic or non-membranolytic action. None of the peptides were cytotoxic to rat erythrocytes or NIH3T3 mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Short-length peptides were directly translocated in fungal cytosol and reacted with mitochondria, resulting in apoptosis. Membrane-permeabilizing activity occurred in the presence of long peptides, and peptides were able to transfer to the cytosol and induce reactive oxygen species. Our results suggest that peptides composed only of cationic amino acids may be good candidates as antifungal agents.