Human Defensin 5 Disulfide Array Mutants: Disulfide Bond Deletion Attenuates Antibacterial Activity Against Staphylococcus aureus

摘要

Human α-defensin 5 (HD5, HD5ox to specify the oxidized and disulfide linked form) is a 32-residue cysteine-rich host-defense peptide, expressed and released by small intestinal Paneth cells, that exhibits antibacterial activity against a number of Gram-negative and –positive bacterial strains. To ascertain the contributions of its disulfide array to structure, antimicrobial activity, and proteolytic stability, a series of HD5 double mutant peptides where pairs of cysteine residues corresponding to native disulfide linkages (Cys³—Cys³¹, Cys⁵—Cys²⁰, Cys¹⁰—Cys³⁰) were mutated to Ser or Ala residues were overexpressed in E. coli, purified and characterized. A hexa mutant peptide, HD5[Ser^hexa], where all six native Cys residues are replaced by Ser residues was also evaluated. Removal of a single native S—S linkage influences oxidative folding and regioisomerization, antibacterial activity, Gram-negative bacterial membrane permeabilization, and proteolytic stability. Whereas the majority of the HD5 mutant peptides show low-micromolar activity against Gram-negative E. coli ATCC 25922 in colony counting assays, the wild-type disulfide array is essential for low-micromolar activity against Gram-positive S. aureus ATCC 25923. Removal of a single disulfide bond attenuates the activity observed for HD5ox against this Gram-positive bacterial strain. This observation supports the notion that the HD5ox mechanism of antibacterial action differs for Gram-negative and Gram-positive species (Wei, G.; de Leeuw, E., Pazgier, M., Yuan, W., Zou, G., Wang, J., Ericksen, B., Lu, W.-Y.; Lehrer, R. I.; Lu, W. (2009) J. Biol. Chem. 284, 29180-29192), and that the native disulfide array is a requirement for its activity against S. aureus.