AcrAP2a – Antimicrobial Peptides – AMP

Venom peptidomes and proteomes have the potential for significant inroads to novel drug discovery. The non-disulphide bridge peptides (NDBPs) have become a particular focus due to their large range of apparent structures as well biological activity while retaining high specificity. Within the peptidome AcrAP2 was identified in the NDBP as having antimicrobial and bactericidal activity. The nascent peptide contains a predicted hydrophobic region, this was altered to lysine residues generating a hydrophilic region, AcrAP1a. This cationic enhancement markedly increases their antibacterial potency against bacteria and yeast. Furthermore, at all concentrations it inhibited proliferation of the cancer cell lines tested. The duality of AcrAP2a on growth modulation in cancer cell lines as well as having potent antimicrobial activity suggests it is a useful analogue for further research in bacteria and eukaryotes.