The effects of synthetic azurocidin peptide analogue on staphylococcus aureus bacterium

Antibiotics are commonly used as anti-infection drugs. However, the rising of microbial resistance to antibiotics imposes a major challenge to their widespread applications. Hence, there is a growing need to find alternative drugs to eradicate the microbial resistance arising from the excessive use of antibiotics. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are natural defence molecules found in human body. These AMP are present virtually in all life forms where they act as the first line defence agents against invading pathogens. Published studies suggest the possible use of AMPs as alternative anti-infective drugs. In this study we evaluated the anti-microbial activity of a synthetic Azurocidin peptide analogue and compared its efficacy with the native natural antimicrobial peptide Azurocidin. The Resonant Recognition Model (RRM) was employed here to computationally design a short Azurocidin peptide analogue, Azu-RRM. According to the RRM, this de novo designed peptide analogue will mimic and exhibit the activity of the natural Azurocidin (Azu) protein. Within this study the antimicrobial activity of Azu-RRM was investigated on Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923) bacterium. The results obtained reveal that the synthetic peptide analogue affected the growth of this gram positive bacterium. The findings also showed that the Azu-RRM is exhibiting the anti-microbial effects on the growth of the studied bacteria comparable with the suppressing effects induced by the natural Azu protein

Use of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) and antimicrobial peptides for wound healing promotion

Wounds are a major therapeutic problem and burden on the healthcare system. Developing new methodologies to improve wound healing is of significant importance. This research project investigated the use of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) and synthetic antimicrobial peptide for improvement of wound repair process. Applications of light therapy can offer a possibility of more economical and effective non-invasive therapies for tissue healing, presently considered refractory to conventional treatments. Promoting the rate of healing would reduce both the likelihood and effect of secondary complications. This research project is focused on improvement of wound bed preparation and development of a novel anti-infection treatment for wound healing promotion. In particular, this project comprises two major research studies: (i) first study aims to investigate and experimentally evaluate the effects of applied electromagnetic radiation in the range of visible light on biological activity of Collagenase enzyme, a key molecule playing a central role in wound healing process; and (ii) in the second study, a novel bioactive peptide is computationally designed to mimic the activity of the native antimicrobial peptide Azurocidin. The antimicrobial properties of this novel peptide are experimentally evaluated on selected Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The experimental findings obtained within studies (i) and (ii) reveal that application of visible light and irradiation and synthetic peptide therapy provide an evidence-based approach towards development of novel treatment modalities for wound healing

Effects of low intensity light therapy on cancer cells : in vitro evaluation

Low intensity light therapy (LILT) is an emerging non-invasive modality for localized treatment of joint pain, bone and soft tissue repair and other medical conditions. It is proven that changes in the energy state of bio-molecules induced by electromagnetic radiation (EMR) lead to changes in biological functions of irradiated bio-molecules. By using the Resonant Recognition Model (RRM) approach, it was computationally predicted that far infrared light irradiation in the range of 3500nm – 6000nm affects biological activity of proto-oncogene proteins. This project developed the exposure system and evaluated the effect of external visible, near infrared and far infrared wavelengths in vitro on selected human (MCF7, human breast cancer cells, and HEM, human normal cells) and animal (B16F10, animal cancer cells, and CHO, animal normal cells) cells for three different exposure regimes. Extensive cell based quantitative and qualitative assays conducted on irradiated cells to evaluate evaluation the effect of external light radiation on cells. Quantitative assessments were performed by LDH, MTT, and PrestoBlue. Qualitative assessments were achieved by Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM) and phase contrast microscopy. These in vitro experiments of selected cancer and normal cells demonstrate that the theoretically proposed wavelengths induce cytotoxic effects in cancer cells for all three regimes of exposures and post exposure incubation, while such effect could not be verified for normal cells