Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
10835999 | Peptides | 2010 | 5 Pages |
Abstract
Scorpion has an innovative venom gland, which is an important determinant in contributing to its successful survival for more than 400 million years. Scorpion venom contains a diversity of bioactive peptides, which represent a tremendous hitherto unexplored resource for use in drug design and development. Here, StCT1, a new antimicrobial peptide gene, was screened and isolated from the venomous gland cDNA library of the scorpion Scorpiops tibetanus. The full-length cDNA of StCT1 is 369 nucleotides encoding the precursor that contains a putative 24-residue signal peptide, a presumed 14-residue mature peptide, and an uncommon 37-residue acidic propeptide at the C-terminus. The minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the synthetic StCT1 peptide against Staphylococcus aureus and Micrococcus luteus were 12.5 μg/ml and 100 μg/ml, respectively. The MICs of StCT1 against clinical antibiotics-resistant bacterial strains, were 50-250 μg/ml, 2-40 folds lower than those of penicillin. These results show that the antimicrobial peptide encoded by StCT1 gene from the venom of the scorpion S. tibetanus is a potential anti-infective polypeptide or lead compound, especially for treating antibiotics-resistant pathogens.
Keywords
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Authors
Wenying Yuan, Luyang Cao, Yibao Ma, Panyong Mao, Weipeng Wang, Ruiming Zhao, Yingliang Wu, Zhijian Cao, Wenxin Li,