Latest Antimicrobial peptides Stories
LUND, Sweden, December 2 /PRNewswire/ -- DermaGen AB - part of the Karolinska Development dermatology and wound healing company "Pergamum" - today announced that Dermagen AB has received promising results from a clinical Phase I/IIa study. DermaGen AB is developing a novel antimicrobial peptide (AMP) treatment for atopic dermatitis. Atopic dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease where dry skin and the skin's weakened barrier function make patients susceptible to colonization...
 A new study has concluded that one key part of the immune system, the ability of vitamin D to regulate anti-bactericidal proteins, is so important that is has been conserved through almost 60 million years of evolution and is shared only by primates, including humans "“ but no other known animal species.The fact that this vitamin-D mediated immune response has been retained through millions of years of evolutionary selection, and is still found in species ranging from squirrel monkeys...
U.S. scientists have found exposure to estrogen reduces the production of immune-related proteins in fish, making them more susceptible to disease. U.S. Geological Survey researchers Laura Robertson, Luke Iwanowicz and Jamie Marie Marranca said their findings provide new clues for why intersex fish, fish kills and fish lesions often occur together in the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers. The study, led by Robertson, revealed largemouth bass injected with estrogen produced lowered levels of...
Exposure to estrogen reduces production of immune-related proteins in fish. This suggests that certain compounds, known as endocrine disruptors, may make fish more susceptible to disease.The research may provide new clues for why intersex fish, fish kills and fish lesions often occur together in the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers. The tests were conducted in a lab by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey.The study, led by USGS genomics researcher Dr. Laura Robertson, revealed that...
Researchers at the University of British Columbia have discovered a mimic of one of "nature's antibiotics" that can be used to coat medical devices to prevent infection and rejection.The study, released today in the journal Chemistry and Biology, found that a synthetic form, short tethered cationic antimicrobial peptides (peptide), can protect surfaces, like those of medical devices, killing bacteria and fungi that come into contact with them. Peptides are small proteins.Medical devices such...
PolyMedix, Inc. (OTC BB: PYMX, http://polymedix.com), an emerging biotechnology company developing new therapeutic drug products to treat infectious diseases and acute cardiovascular disorders based on biomimetics, has initiated dosing and commenced a Phase I clinical study in Canada for its defensin mimetic antibiotic compound, PMX-30063. PolyMedix received a notice of no objection from Health Canada for the Company's Clinical Trial Application ("CTA") for PMX-30063 in May 2008. PMX-30063 is...
By Clement, Cecilia G Evans, Scott E; Evans, Christopher M; Hawke, David; Kobayashi, Ryuji; Reynolds, Paul R; Moghaddam, Seyed J; Scott, Brenton L; Melicoff, Ernestina; Adachi, Roberto; Dickey, Burton F; Tuvim, Michael J Rationale: The lungs are a common site of serious infection in both healthy and immunocompromised subjects, and the most likely route of delivery of a bioterror agent. Since the airway epithelium shows great structural plasticity in response to inflammatory stimuli, we...
Drug-resistant bacterial infections are a growing concern, and much research has been devoted to finding new classes of antibiotics to fight them.Stanford researchers may have found some answers in peptoids, a class of manmade molecules very similar to natural proteins that play an important role in the human immune system."Peptoids could be an entirely new class of antibiotic drugs, which would be hugely important," said Annelise Barron, associate professor of bioengineering at...
Thousands of tiny fruit flies soon will journey into space to help NASA scientists better understand changes in the human immune system caused by space flight. Despite differences in size and complexity, the Drosophila melanogaster, or common fruit fly, may help scientists from NASA Ames Research Center unlock the secrets of why astronauts often develop changes in their immune system during space flight. The experiment will be part of the STS-121 space shuttle mission tentatively scheduled...
A new weapon in the battle against HIV may come from an unusual source -- a small tropical frog. Investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center reported this month in the Journal of Virology that compounds secreted by frog skin are potent blockers of HIV infection. The findings could lead to topical treatments for preventing HIV transmission, and they reinforce the value of preserving the Earth's biodiversity. "We need to protect these species long enough for us to understand...
