Main description:

The use of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) as agents in therapeutic and agricultural applications is nearing reality. From the earliest characterization of their antimicrobial activities to novel methods for their synthesis and high-throughput screening assays, this class of antimicrobial agents has been the driving force behind the development of next-generation therapeutics and preventative medicines as well as in the control of plant diseases. More than 1700 natural
AMPs from a wide range of life forms ranging from prokaryotes to humans have been characterized to date and many of these have served as templates for the rational design of synthetic peptides with improved potency, specificity, stability, and bioavailability. Once thought to be very uniform in
their antimicrobial activity as membrane disruptants, research is now revealing the multifunctional nature of these molecules as critical players not only in the host's innate immunity but also as modulators of the adaptive immune response in mammals or as elicitors of defense responses in plants. Several AMPs not only function solely through interaction and disruption of pathogen cellular membranes but also have the ability to cross the pathogen's cell membrane in a nondestructive manner and
interact with intracellular targets interfering with important biological functions and leading to cell death.

AMP technology has tremendous implications for the development of novel therapeutics and plant protective strategies. This book assembles contributions by internationally acclaimed scientists with a focus on therapeutic and agricultural applications. Promising medical applications of peptide technology include treatments for bacterial, fungal and viral infections. Production of more effective peptides, targeting the treatment of cancer, utilizes novel strategies for designing peptide immunogens
to elicit specific antibodies. In humans, peptides that modulate the host's adaptive immune response will not be recognized by the invading pathogen as a defense factor and therefore will not be prone to development of resistance by the pathogen. Agricultural applications include control of
devastating plant diseases caused by microbial pathogens, some of them resulting in mycotoxin contamination of food and feed products. Though plants and their various pathogens wage a continuous war of resistance against one another, transgenic strategies that utilize AMPs with different modes of action (both extra- and intracellularly) against target pathogens should provide a self defense mechanism that will be much harder for the pathogen to circumvent and develop resistance.

This book is the result of the symposium Small Wonders: Peptides for Disease Control held at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston, MA, August 22-26, 2010.

Contents:

Preface ; 1. Immunomodulatory Cationic Peptide Therapeutics: A New Paradigm in Infection and Immunity ; Neeloffer Mookherjee, Leola N. Y. Chow, and Robert E. W. Hancock ; 2. Structure/Function Link Between Cytokine Domains and Natural and Designed Lytic Peptides: Medical Promise ; Jesse M. Jaynes and Gregory C. Bernard ; 3. The Potential of Frog Skin Antimicrobial Peptides for Development into Therapeutically Valuable Anti-Infective Agents ; J. M. Conlon ; 4. Obstacles and Solutions to the Use of Cationic Antimicrobial Peptides in the Treatment of Cancer ; Ashley L. Hilchie, Melanie R. Power Coombs, and David W. Hoskin ; 5. Lytic Peptides as Anticancer Therapeutics: Lessons Learned from a Novel Design Approach ; Clayton Yates, Timothy Turner, and Jesse M. Jaynes ; 6. Strategies for Designing Peptide Immunogens To Elicit ?-Helical Conformation-Specific Antibodies Reactive with Native Proteins ; Zhe Yan, Wendy J. Hartsock, Zhaohui Qian, Kathryn V. Holmes, and Robert S. Hodges ; 7. Defensins in Viral Infection ; Rachna Shah and Theresa L. Chang ; 8. "GENOPEP", a Topical Cream in the Treatment of Burn Wounds ; Jesse M. Jaynes and V. Siva Rami Reddy ; 9. Developing Influenza Antigen Microarrays for Seroprofiling ; Yu M. Foong and Mahesh Uttamchandani ; 10. pH-Directed Self-Assembling Helical Peptide Conformation ; J. Vincent Edwards, Alfred D. French, Thomas Jacks, and K. Rajasekaran ; 11. Controlling Symbiotic Microbes with Antimicrobial Peptides ; Peter Mergaert and Eva Kondorosi ; 12. Antimicrobial Peptides for Plant Disease Control. From Discovery to Application ; Emilio Montesinos, Esther Badosa, Jordi Cabrefiga, Marta Planas, Lidia Feliu, and Eduard Bardaji ; 13. Antimicrobial Peptides as a Promising Alternative for Plant Disease Protection ; B. Lopez-Garcia, B. San Segundo, and M. Coca ; 14. Strategies for Controlling Plant Diseases and Mycotoxin Contamination Using Antimicrobial Synthetic Peptides ; K. Rajasekaran, J. W. Cary, C. A. Chlan, J. M. Jaynes, and D. Bhatnagar ; 15. Antifungal Plant Defensins: Structure-Activity Relationships, Modes of Action, and Biotech Applications ; Uma Shankar Sagaram, Jagdeep Kaur, and Dilip Shah ; 16. Antifungal Peptides: Exploiting Non-Lytic Mechanisms and Cell Penetration Properties ; Jose F. Marcos, Monica Gandia, Eleonora Harries, Lourdes Carmona, and Alberto Munoz ; 17. Thionin Antifungal Peptide Synthesis in Transgenic Barley ; Jianming Fu, Minesh Patel, Anna Maria Nuutila, and Ron Skadsen ; 18. Expression of Designed Antimicrobial Peptides in Theobroma cacao L. Trees Reduces Leaf Necrosis Caused by Phytophthora spp. ; Luis C. Mejia, Mark J. Guiltinan, Zi Shi, Lena Landherr, and Siela N. Maximova ; 19. Antimicrobial Peptides for Fire Blight Control ; V. Sarojini ; 20. Thionins - Nature's Weapons of Mass Protection ; Svetlana Oard, Jong Hyun Ham, and Marc Alan Cohn ; 21. Transgenic Expression of Antimicrobial Peptides in Plants: Strategies for Enhanced Disease Resistance, Improved Productivity, and Production of Therapeutics ; Dmytro P. Yevtushenko and Santosh Misra ; Editors' Biographies ; Indexes