Basic Medical Sciences Building

As cationic antimicrobial peptides are major players of the innate immune response with broad antimicrobial activities, we evaluated the activity of Paneth cells derived cryptdin-2 against selected bacterial pathogens i.e Yersinia enterocolitica, Salmonella typhimurium (Gram negative) and Staphylococcus aureus (Gram positive). Cryptdin(s) preparations were obtained from crypt homogenates as well as from Paneth cells and analyzed using SDS-PAGE. A peptide band corresponding to 3.5 KDa (appx.) was eluted and purity was confirmed using HPLC. It was identified as cryptdin-2 according to its amino acid sequence. The peptide was found to have antimicrobial activity against the selected pathogens as indicated by radial diffusion assay as well as standard colony count technique. However, the activity was found to be the highest for S. aureus. This study thus highlights an important role of cryptdin-2 during host-pathogen interactions and indicates its potential as an inhibitory agent against the enteric infections