PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Fan, Yu AU - Li, Xiang-Dan AU - He, Ping-Ping AU - Hu, Xiao-Xue AU - Zhang, Kuo AU - Fan, Jia-Qi AU - Yang, Pei-Pei AU - Zheng, Hao-Yan AU - Tian, Wen AU - Chen, Zi-Ming AU - Ji, Lei AU - Wang, Hao AU - Wang, Lei TI - A biomimetic peptide recognizes and traps bacteria in vivo as human defensin-6 AID - 10.1126/sciadv.aaz4767 DP - 2020 May 01 TA - Science Advances PG - eaaz4767 VI - 6 IP - 19 4099 - http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/19/eaaz4767.short 4100 - http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/19/eaaz4767.full SO - Sci Adv2020 May 01; 6 AB - Using broad-spectrum antibiotics for microbial infection may cause flora disequilibrium, drug-resistance, etc., seriously threatening human health. Here, we design a human defensin-6 mimic peptide (HDMP) that inhibits bacterial invasion in vivo through mimicking the mechanisms of human defensin-6 with high efficiency and precision. The HDMP with ligand and self-assembling peptide sequence recognizes bacteria through ligand-receptor interactions and subsequently traps bacteria by an in situ adaptive self-assembly process and resulting nanofibrous networks; these trapped bacteria are unable to invade host cells. In four animal infection models, the infection rate was markedly decreased. Notably, administration of HDMP (5 mg/kg) nanoparticles increased the survival rate of mice with methicillin-resistant S. aureus bacteremia by as much as 100%, even more than that of vancomycin treatment (5 mg/kg, 83.3%)–treated group, the golden standard of antibiotics. This biomimetic peptide shows great potential as a precise and highly efficient antimicrobial agent.