The rise of antimicrobial resistance is a major challenge for future healthcare needs. To date antibiotic resistant bacterial strains have been reported in every country with prevalence growing annually. One promising line of treatment is antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), small cationic peptides, similar to the innate antimicrobial peptide defense in humans. It has been shown that AMPs can be...
It is generally believed that antimicrobial peptides, AMPs, are able to evade much of the bacterial resistance because they disturb the fundamental integrity of the entire cell by interfering with the life-defining cell membrane. However, there is no clear general consensus for the molecular basis by which AMPs act, although various structural modifications such as membrane deformation or pore...
The metabolism of fats including lipids and cholesterol involves the production, in the liver, of lipid carrying particles known as lipoproteins. Lipoproteins are nanoemulsion-like particles composed of fats and proteins (named apolipoproteins). The complexity of lipoproteins is great, with different compositions not only in terms of the amounts of the fat and proteic components, but also on...
Pulmonary surfactant (PS) is a mixture of lipids (~90 %) and 8-10 % specific surfactant associated proteins. PS lines the interior of the lung alveoli and acts to lower interfacial tension. The absence of PS due to prematurity, or its damage, is treated by exogeneous PS in neonatal medicine. Curosurf (Cur) is one such clinically used replacement surfactants. It is an extract of porcine lung...
