Antibiotic peptides as mediators of innate immunity

✍ Scribed by Michael Zasloff

• Book ID: 103972904
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 772 KB
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-7915
• DOI: 10.1016/0952-7915(92)90115-u

✦ Synopsis

Antibiotic peptides are widely distributed in nature. Almost all function as membrane-active agents, disrupting target-cell permeability. Several exhibit a striking selectivity for single-celled microbes over metazoan cells, and as such are amongst the simplest components of the animal's defensive system, which distinguishes environmental microbes from 'self'.