Antimicrobial peptides

This is a default text for your page Antimicrobial peptides. Click above on edit this page to modify. Be careful with the < and > signs. You may include any references to papers as in: the use of JSmol in Proteopedia ^[1] or to the article describing Jmol ^[2] to the rescue.

Introduction

Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs) are short peptides that consist of 10-50 amino acids, and were found to have antimicrobial influence on different kinds of bacteria. They are also called host defense peptides (HDPs) or defensins,Since they have different functions in their host. AMPs are produced by Eukaryotes, as part of their defence mechanism from bacteria. They defend their host from bacteria, and also have physiological functions such as inflammation and wound healing (Wimley 2010) Even though they have similar functions, AMPs lack any specific consensus amino acid sequences that are associated with biological activity.

History

Discovery and diversity

Structural highlights

AMPs are rich with hydrophibic (Ala, Val, Ile, Leu, Met, Phe, Tyr, Trp) and Possitively charged (Lys, Arg) Amino Acids, which seems to allow them to bind into membranes. , is a peptide from........... and it's sequence is rich with and .

AMPs have a big vareity of structures, and these structures can be divided to a few categories: alpha helix structures, beta sheet structures, and peptides with extended or loop structures.

Their structure allow them to interact with negatively charged phospholipid head groups of microbial membranes, resulting in pore formation on the bacterial membrane .

Nevertheless, the way different antimicrobial peptides achieve their goal appears to be different, and there are a few suggested mechanisms.

Suggested Mechanisms

there are a few suggested machanisms of how AMPs work(William C. Wimley, ACS CHEMICAL BIOLOGY, 2010). they can be divided into two: (A) Transmembrane Pore Models of AMP Membrane Activity and (B) Nonpore Models of AMP Activity

In the Transmembrane Pore Models, it is suggested that AMPs form many pores in the mambrane, so that iit cannot hole it's content anymore.

Function

Disease

Relevance

This is a sample scene created with SAT to by Group, and another to make of the protein. You can make your own scenes on SAT starting from scratch or loading and editing one of these sample scenes.