New to MyHealth?
Manage Your Care From Anywhere.
Access your health information from any device with MyHealth. You can message your clinic, view lab results, schedule an appointment, and pay your bill.
ALREADY HAVE AN ACCESS CODE?
DON'T HAVE AN ACCESS CODE?
NEED MORE DETAILS?
MyHealth for Mobile
Human gut metagenomic mining reveals an untapped source of peptide antibiotics.
Human gut metagenomic mining reveals an untapped source of peptide antibiotics. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology Torres, M. D., Brooks, E., Cesaro, A., Sberro, H., Nicolaou, C., Bhatt, A. S., de la Fuente-Nunez, C. 2023Abstract
Drug-resistant bacteria are outpacing traditional antibiotic discovery efforts. Here, we computationally mined 444,054 families of putative small proteins from 1,773 human gut metagenomes, identifying 323 peptide antibiotics encoded in small open reading frames (smORFs). To test our computational predictions, 78 peptides were synthesized and screened for antimicrobial activity in vitro , with 59% displaying activity against either pathogens or commensals. Since these peptides were unique compared to previously reported antimicrobial peptides, we termed them s mORF-encoded peptides (SEPs). SEPs killed bacteria by targeting their membrane, synergized with each other, and modulated gut commensals, indicating that they may play a role in reconfiguring microbiome communities in addition to counteracting pathogens. The lead candidates were anti-infective in both murine skin abscess and deep thigh infection models. Notably, prevotellin-2 from Prevotella copri presented activity comparable to the commonly used antibiotic polymyxin B. We report the discovery of hundreds of peptide sequences in the human gut.
View details for DOI 10.1101/2023.08.31.555711
View details for PubMedID 37693399