Identification and bioactivity assessment of a novel peptide, QUB-2543, from the skin secretion of the frog, Rana pipiens

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria pose a significant health challenge. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of a novel antimicrobial peptide, QUB-2543, isolated from the skin secretion of the Northern Leopard frog, (Rana pipiens), in combating bacteria (or fungi) focusing on the potential to substitute the antibiotic in therapeutic treatments.

To address this issue, the antimicrobial activity, anti-proliferation activity and haemolysis activity of QUB-2543 were evaluated. QUB-2543 exhibited potent antibacterial activity with MICs/MBCs values of 2/4 μM, 4/8 μM and 8/16 μM, against S. aureus NCTC 10788, E. coli NCTC 10418, and C. albicans ATCC 10231, respectively. QUB-2543 was evaluated by H838 human non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell line and the value of IC50 was 4.582 μM and cell viability (%) drop dramatically at the concentration of 10 μM. In haemolytic assays, QUB-2543 exhibited a relatively high haemolytic activity of 14% at the concentration of 8 μM.

The findings suggest that QUB-2543 has the potential to be developed into an antimicrobial agent, with future work focusing on comprehensive evaluation of its antibacterial and anticancer activities and investing in in vivo experiments and cytotoxicity evaluation on normal human cells.

In conclusion, our study demonstrated that QUB-2543 represents a promising future lead as a substitute antibiotic. These results underscore the importance of QUB-2543’s therapeutic potential and pave the way for future research to build upon our findings.

Thesis is embargoed until 31st December 2029.

Date of Award	Dec 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Supervisor	Lei Wang (Supervisor), Tianbao Chen (Supervisor) & Mei Zhou (Supervisor)