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The 43-residue defensin-like peptide coprisin, which is isolated from dung bettle, Copris tripartitus, is a potent antimicrobial peptide. In our previous work, we determined the tertiary structure of coprisin and found that alpha helical region of coprisin from residue 19 to residue 30 is important for its antimicrobial activities. Here, we designed cop12mer and cop9mer analogs of coprisin based on the tertiary structure of coprisin. To investigate the relationship between hydrophobicity and antimicrobial activities and develop the potent peptide antibiotics, we designed cop9mer-1 with substitution of His 2 with Trp in cop9mer. The results showed that cop9mer-1 has higher toxicities as well as improved antimicrobial activities compared to cop9mer. In order to reduce the toxicity of cop9mer-1, we designed cop9mer-2 and cop9mer-3 with substitution of Cys 3 with Lys or Ser. Substitution of Cys 3 with these hydrophilic amino acids results in lower cytotoxicities compared to cop9mer-1. Cop9mer-2 with substitution of Cys 3 with Lys in Cop9mer-1 showed high antibacterial activities against drug resistant bacteria without cytotoxicity. Antibiotic action of cop9mer-1 analog appears to involve permeabilization of the bacterial cell membrane while cop9mer-2 and cop9mer-3 may have different mechanism of action. These results imply that that optimum balance in hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity in these 9-meric peptides plays key roles in their antimicrobial activities as well as cytotoxicities.

9-Meric Peptide Analogs of Defensin-like Antimicrobial Peptide Coprisin with Potent Antibacterial Activities with Bacterial Sell Selectivites