Boosting Synergistic Effects of Short Antimicrobial Peptides With Conventional Antibiotics Against Resistant Bacteria

oleh: Chih-Lung Wu, Kuang-Li Peng, Bak-Sau Yip, Bak-Sau Yip, Ya-Han Chih, Jya-Wei Cheng

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-10-01

Deskripsi

The global spread of antibiotic-resistant infections has meant that there is an urgent need to develop new antimicrobial alternatives. In this study, we developed a strategy to boost and/or synergize the activity of conventional antibiotics by combination with antimicrobial peptides tagged with the bulky non-natural amino acid β-naphthylalanine (Nal) to their N- or C-terminus. A checkerboard method was used to evaluate synergistic effects of the parent peptide and the Nal-tagged peptides. Moreover, boron-dipyrro-methene labeled vancomycin was used to characterize the synergistic mechanism of action between the peptides and vancomycin on the bacterial strains. These Nal-tagged antimicrobial peptides also reduced the antibiotic-induced release of lipopolysaccharide from Gram-negative bacteria by more than 99.95%. Our results demonstrate that Nal-tagged peptides could help in developing antimicrobial peptides that not only have enhanced antibacterial activities but also increase the synergistic effects with conventional antibiotics against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.