Computer-aided Discovery of Peptides that Specifically Attack Bacterial Biofilms

Sci Rep. 2018 Jan 30;8(1):1871. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-19669-4.

Abstract

Biofilms represent a multicellular growth state of bacteria that are intrinsically resistant to conventional antibiotics. It was recently shown that a synthetic immunomodulatory cationic peptide, 1018 (VRLIVAVRIWRR-NH2), exhibits broad-spectrum antibiofilm activity but the sequence determinants of antibiofilm peptides have not been systematically studied. In the present work, a peptide library consisting of 96 single amino acid substituted variants of 1018 was SPOT-synthesized on cellulose arrays and evaluated against methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) biofilms. This dataset was used to establish quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models relating the antibiofilm activity of these peptides to hundreds of molecular descriptors derived from their sequences. The developed 3D QSAR models then predicted the probability that a peptide would possess antibiofilm activity from a library of 100,000 virtual peptide sequences in silico. A subset of these variants were SPOT-synthesized and their activity assessed, revealing that the QSAR models resulted in ~85% prediction accuracy. Notably, peptide 3002 (ILVRWIRWRIQW-NH2) was identified that exhibited an 8-fold increased antibiofilm potency in vitro compared to 1018 and proved effective in vivo, significantly reducing abscess size in a chronic MRSA mouse infection model. This study demonstrates that QSAR modeling can successfully be used to identify antibiofilm specific peptides with therapeutic potential.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Abscess / drug therapy
  • Abscess / microbiology
  • Animals
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology*
  • Biofilms / drug effects*
  • Biofilms / growth & development
  • Computer-Aided Design*
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Drug Discovery*
  • Female
  • Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / drug effects
  • Mice
  • Microbial Sensitivity Tests
  • Peptide Fragments / pharmacology*
  • Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship
  • Skin Diseases, Bacterial / drug therapy*
  • Skin Diseases, Bacterial / microbiology
  • Staphylococcal Infections / drug therapy*
  • Staphylococcal Infections / microbiology

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents
  • Peptide Fragments