Our study relating the antimicrobial activity and predicted structure of AMPs is published

Our manuscript presenting on “Associating Biological Activity and Predicted Structure of Antimicrobial Peptides from Amphibians and Insects” has been published in Antibiotics. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) hold great potential as effective alternatives to small molecule antibiotics in the race against antibiotic resistance. In our manuscript we present on the initial discovery of 88 AMPs using our in-house predictors rAMPage and AMPlify. Further characterization of structurally and functionally diverse AMPs with potent antimicrobial activity and low toxicity narrowed the set to 51 promising candidates. In our study, we demonstrate the utility of predicting the structure of AMPs and report on an association between peptides predicted to adopt a helical structure and measured antimicrobial activity in vitro using three WHO “priority” pathogens, including E. coli ATCC 25922, Salmonella Enteritidis, and S. aureus ATCC 29213. The potential of structural prediction to prioritize putative AMPs is an exciting avenue for discovery of new therapeutics to fight bacterial infections.