Identification and functional evaluation of an antimicrobial peptide isolated from the skin secretion of the large Chinese odorous frog, Odorrana livida

It has been generally accepted that the defensive peptides derived from amphibian skin secretions can be grouped into three broad categories in accordance with their established biological effects, including antimicrobials, protease inhibitors and those with pharmacological activities.<br><br>In this study, a peptide from the lividin family, designated QUB-2193 (SRVVKCIGFRPGSPDSRQSC), was identified from defensive skin secretion of the large Chinese odorous frog, Odorrana livida, using ‘shotgun’ cloning techniques.

Subsequently, QUB-2193 was chemically synthesised via SPPS and structurally characterised by the application of MALDI-TOF MS. Following RP-HPLC purification, the synthetic replicate of QUB-2193 was subjected to functional assays to evaluate its biological effect. The results demonstrated that QUB-2193 exhibited no significant antimicrobial or haemolytic activity on horse erythrocytes.