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.