Design and Synthesis of New Potent Melanocortin Peptides with Candidacidal Activity

摘要

In the last two decades, the incidence of human fungal infections has increased dramatically. Pathogenic fungi, mainly Candida and Apergilhis species, determine opportunistic infection in immunocompromised patients, including those affected by AIDS, cancer patients treated with chemotherapy, transplant recipients on immunosuppressive drugs and patients with advanced diabetes. Additionally, the spread of antibiotic resistance among pathogens especially in hospital environments but also in the community has occurred at an alarming rate. Therefore the necessity of alternative antimicrobial agents has increased. Antimicrobial peptides are promising candidates for treatment of resistant bacterial and fungal infections due primarily to their potency against pathogenic microbes that are resistant to conventional antibiotics, as well as their broad-spectrum activity. Antimicrobial peptides are ubiquitous, conserved in evolutionary scale and do not induce resistance. α-Melanocyte stimulating hormone is an endogenous linear peptide originated from enzymatic cuts of proopiomelanocortin (POMC). It belongs to melanocortin peptide family and it has antipyretic, anti-inflammatory and pigmentary effects.