BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Therapeutics

Infectious disease

December 13, 2017 1:09 AM UTC

Cell culture and mouse studies suggest an acid-activated antimicrobial peptide could help treat Helicobacter pylori infection without affecting commensal bacteria. The peptide comprises anionic and cationic amino acid residues that adopt a random coiled conformation at normal physiological pHs and a membrane-disrupting helical conformation under acidic conditions that confers antimicrobial activity. In cultures of four clarithromycin-resistant H. pylori strains cultured under acidic conditions, the peptide decreased survival compared with no treatment. In a mouse model of H. pylori infection, oral delivery of the peptide decreased bacterial burden in the stomach compared with vehicle, and decreased killing of commensal bacteria in the ileum and feces compared with the standard-of-care combination of the proton pump inhibitor omeprazole and the generic antibiotics amoxicillin and clarithromycin. Next steps include optimizing the structure of the peptide to increase its selectivity under acidic conditions and testing the efficacy of the polypeptide in additional animal models of H. pylori infection...