Small Wonders

Peptides for Disease Control

Edited by Kanniah Rajasekaran, Jeffrey W. Cary, Jesse M. Jaynes, and Emilio Montesinos

American Chemical Society

ACS Symposium Series

The first book that covers a broad range of peptide technology and its practical application in the agricultural, medical, and pharmaceutical fields
The up-to-date reviews and original research presented in this book will be of interest to a diverse audience including scientists in the medical, pharmaceutical, agricultural, chemical and biotechnological fields
Will act as a useful reference tool for biochemists, molecular biologists, microbiologists and graduate students engaged in research and the development of peptides
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been the driving force behind the development of next-generation therapeutics and preventative medicines as well as in the control of plant diseases
Promising medical applications of peptide technology include treatments for bacterial, fungal and viral infections
This book represents a timely and much-needed comprehensive update of the literature in the field of peptides for disease control, an important and fast-moving subject area.

Small Wonders

Peptides for Disease Control

Edited by Kanniah Rajasekaran, Jeffrey W. Cary, Jesse M. Jaynes, and Emilio Montesinos

American Chemical Society

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.

Small Wonders

Peptides for Disease Control

Edited by Kanniah Rajasekaran, Jeffrey W. Cary, Jesse M. Jaynes, and Emilio Montesinos

American Chemical Society

ACS Symposium Series

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 Bardají
13. Antimicrobial Peptides as a Promising Alternative for Plant Disease Protection
B. López-García, 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, Mónica Gandía, Eleonora Harries, Lourdes Carmona, and Alberto Muñoz
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. Mejía, 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

Small Wonders

Peptides for Disease Control

Edited by Kanniah Rajasekaran, Jeffrey W. Cary, Jesse M. Jaynes, and Emilio Montesinos

American Chemical Society

ACS Symposium Series

Author Information

Kanniah Rajasekaran, Southern Regional Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture, New Orleans, Louisiana

Jeffrey W. Cary, Southern Regional Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Jesse M. Jaynes, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama

Emilio Montesinos, University of Girona, Girona, Spain