Yara Al Tall*, Baha’a Al-Rawashdeh, Ahmad Abualhaijaa, Ammar Almaaytah, Majed Masadeh and Karem H. Alzoubi Pages 376 - 385 ( 10 )
Background: Multi-drug resistant infections are a growing worldwide health concern. There is an urgent need to produce alternative antimicrobial agents.
Objective: The study aimed to design a new hybrid antimicrobial peptide, and to evaluate its antimicrobial activity alone and in combination with traditional antibiotics.
Methods: Herein, we designed a novel hybrid peptide (BMR-1) using the primary sequences of the parent peptides Frog Esculentin-1a and Monkey Rhesus cathelicidin (RL-37). The positive net charge was increased, and other physicochemical parameters were optimized. The antimicrobial activities of BMR-1 were tested against control and multi-drug resistant gram-negative bacteria.
Results: BMR-1 adopted a bactericidal behavior with MIC values of 25-30 µM. These values reduced by over 75% upon combination with conventional antibiotics (levofloxacin, chloramphenicol, ampicillin, and rifampicin). The combination showed strong synergistic activities in most cases and particularly against multi-drug resistance P. aeruginosa and E. coli. BMR-1 showed similar potency against all tested strains regardless of their resistant mechanisms. BMR-1 exhibited no hemolytic effect on human red blood cells with the effective MIC values against the tested strains.
Conclusion: BMR-1 hybrid peptide is a promising candidate to treat resistant infectious diseases caused by gramnegative bacteria.
Antimicrobial peptides, hybridization, resistance, antibiotic adjuvant, synergism, BMR-1.
Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid 22110, Department of Toxicology and Forensic Science, Faculty of Medicine, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid 22110, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid 22110, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid 22110, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid 22110, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid 22110