Structural features and biological activities of the cathelicidin-derived antimicrobial peptides

Cathelicidins are a numerous group of mammalian proteins that carry divers antimicrobial peptides at the C-terminus of a highly conserved preproregion . These peptides, which become active when released from the proregion, dis plays a remarkable variety of sizes, sequences, and structures, and in fact comprise representatives of alla the structural groups in which the known antimicrobial peptides have been classified. Most of the cathelicidin-deriv ed peptides exert a broad spectrum and potent antimicrobial activity and al so bind to lipopolysaccharide and neutralize its effects. In addition, some of them have recently been shown to exert other activities and might parti cipate in host defense also by virtue of their ability to induce expression of molecules involved in a variety of biological processes. This review is aimed at providing a general overview of the cathelicidins and of the pept ides derived therefrom, with emphasis on aspects such as structure, biologi cal activities in vitro and in vivo, and structure/activity relationship st udies. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.