Reversal of visceral hypersensitivity in rat by Menthacarin®, a proprietary combination of essential oils from peppermint and caraway, coincides with mycobiome modulation

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common gastrointestinal disorder associated with altered gastrointestinal microflora and increased nociception to colonic distension. This visceral hypersensitivity can be reversed in our rat maternal separation model by fungicides. Menthacarin® is a proprietary combination of essential oils from...

Ring-extended gramicidin S analogs Containing cis δ-sugar amino acid turn mimetics with varying ring size

This article presents a series of ring-extended gramicidin S derivatives, 9-14, that have four ornithine residues as polar protonated side chains and one modified turn region containing a mono-functionalized cis-δ-oxetane, δ-furanoid, or δ-pyranoid sugar amino acid residue. Of the GS analogs evaluated, we identified compound 7, which contains...

Nano-silver in membranes for medical applications

Evaluation of readily accessible azoles as mimics of the aromatic ring of D-phenylalanine in the turn region of gramicidin S

The influence of replacing the d-phenylalanine residue with substituted and unsubstituted azoles on the structure and biological activity of the antibiotic gramicidinS was investigated against a representative panel of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria strains. Substituted triazole derivatives, obtained using a convergent synthetic...

Improved proteolytic stability of chicken cathelicidin-2 derived peptides by d-amino acid substitutions and cyclization

A truncated version of host defense peptide chicken cathelicidin-2, C1-15, possesses potent, broad spectrum antibacterial activity. A variant of this peptide, F2,5,12W, which contains 3 phenylalanine to tryptophan substitutions, possesses improved antibacterial activity and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) neutralizing activity compared to C1-15. In...

Chicken cathelicidin-2-derived peptides with enhanced immunomodulatory and antibacterial activities against biological warfare agents

Host defence peptides (HDPs) are considered to be excellent candidates for the development of novel therapeutic agents. Recently, it was demonstrated that the peptide C1-15, an N-terminal segment of chicken HDP cathelicidin-2, exhibits potent antibacterial activity while lacking cytotoxicity towards eukaryotic cells. In the present study, we...

Evaluation of the antibacterial spectrum of drosocin analogues

Drosocin is a 19-mer, cationic antimicrobial peptide from Drosophila melanogaster. The aim of the study was to examine the antibacterial spectrum of unglycosylated drosocin analogues. Furthermore, the amino acid sequence of DnaK, drosocin's intracellular target, from susceptible species was aligned and studied for sequence homology. From this a...