Generic placeholder image

Current Pharmaceutical Design

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 1381-6128
ISSN (Online): 1873-4286

The Multifaceted Activities of Mammalian Defensins

Author(s): Eusondia Arnett and Stephanie Seveau

Volume 17, Issue 38, 2011

Page: [4254 - 4269] Pages: 16

DOI: 10.2174/138161211798999348

Price: $65

Abstract

Defensins are an important family of cationic and cysteine-rich host defense peptides that are widely distributed in plants, fungi, and animals. In mammals, defensins exert potent antimicrobial and immunomodulatory activities linking the innate and adaptive immune responses. These peptides play critical roles in health and disease as defects in their production are associated with abnormal host responses to infection, chronic inflammatory diseases, and cancer. There is much interest in elucidating the structure-function relation and modes of action of the defensins to better understand how these peptides kill microbes and regulate the host immune responses. Such knowledge is expected to help in the design of novel defensin-based therapeutics. This review focuses on the multifaceted antimicrobial and immunomodulatory activities of human and murine defensins.

Keywords: Defensins, antimicrobial peptides, inflammation, innate and adaptive immune responses, infectious diseases, antimicrobial activity, immunomodulatory activities, -sheets, zwitterionic phospholipids, chemotaxis


Rights & Permissions Print Cite
© 2024 Bentham Science Publishers | Privacy Policy