Protease Inhibitors from Plants with Antimicrobial Activity

Author： Kim Jin-Young Park Seong-Cheol Hwang Indeok Cheong Hyeonsook Nah Jae-Woon Hahm Kyung-Soo Park Yoonkyung

Publisher： MDPI

E-ISSN： 1422-0067|10|6|2860-2872

ISSN： 1422-0067

Source： International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Vol.10, Iss.6, 2009-06, pp. : 2860-2872

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

Antimicrobial proteins (peptides) are known to play important roles in the innate host defense mechanisms of most living organisms, including plants, insects, amphibians and mammals. They are also known to possess potent antibiotic activity against bacteria, fungi, and even certain viruses. Recently, the rapid emergence of microbial pathogens that are resistant to currently available antibiotics has triggered considerable interest in the isolation and investigation of the mode of action of antimicrobial proteins (peptides). Plants produce a variety of proteins (peptides) that are involved in the defense against pathogens and invading organisms, including ribosome-inactivating proteins, lectins, protease inhibitors and antifungal peptides (proteins). Specially, the protease inhibitors can inhibit aspartic, serine and cysteine proteinases. Increased levels of trypsin and chymotrypsin inhibitors correlated with the plants resistance to the pathogen. Usually, the purification of antimicrobial proteins (peptides) with protease inhibitor activity was accomplished by salt-extraction, ultrafiltration and C₁₈ reverse phase chromatography, successfully. We discuss the relation between antimicrobial and anti-protease activity in this review. Protease inhibitors from plants potently inhibited the growth of a variety of pathogenic bacterial and fungal strains and are therefore excellent candidates for use as the lead compounds for the development of novel antimicrobial agents.