A computationally designed peptide derived from Escherichia coli as a potential drug template for antibacterial and antibiofilm therapies

Computer-aided screening of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) is a promising approach for discovering novel therapies against multidrug-resistant bacterial infections. Here, we functionally and structurally characterized an Escherichia coli-derived AMP (EcDBS1R5) previously designed through pattern identification [α-helical set (KK[ILV](3)[AILV])], followed by sequence optimization. EcDBS1R5 inhibited the growth of Gram-negative and Gram-positive, susceptible and resistant bacterial strains at low doses (2 to 32 μM), with no cytotoxicity observed against non-cancerous and cancerous cell lines in the concentration range analysed