Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) detoxification of analogue peptides derived from limulus anti-LPS factor

▶ Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of sepsis. ▶ A peptide (CLP19) derived from limulus anti-LPS factor (LALF) antagonized LPS significantly both in vitro and in vivo, but it displayed unnegligible hemolytic effect on human red blood cells. ▶ By amino acid substitution, two new peptides (CLP19-1 and CLP19-2) were obtained from CLP19 and their bioactivities were evaluated. ▶ CLP19-1 exhibited equivalent LPS-detoxifying activity and much lower hemolysis compared with CLP19, while CLP19-2 showed little anti-LPS and cytotoxicity activities. ▶ The changes in activities were probably attributable to the decrease of peptide hydrophobicity affected by substituting the hydrophobic residues by hydrophilic ones.