Nicholas K H Ostan, Gregory B Cole, Flora Zhiqi Wang, Sean E Reichheld, Gaelen Moore, Chuxi Pan, Ronghua Yu, Christine Chieh-Lin Lai, Simon Sharpe, Hyun O Lee, Anthony B Schryvers, Trevor F Moraes
Mammalian hosts combat bacterial infections through the production of defensive cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAPs). These immune factors are capable of directly killing bacterial invaders; however, many pathogens have evolved resistance evasion mechanisms such as cell surface modification, CAP sequestration, degradation, or efflux. We have discovered that several pathogenic and commensal proteobacteria, including the urgent human threat Neisseria gonorrhoeae , secrete a protein (lactoferrin-binding protein B, LbpB) that contains a low-complexity anionic domain capable of inhibiting the antimicrobial activity of host CAPs...
April 2024: PNAS Nexus