Magainin-1

Magainin-1 is a 23-amino acids peptide which belongs to the magainin peptide family.Magainins are antibiotic peptides with antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal activities. These peptides cause perturbation of membrane functions responsible for osmotic balance.Magainin-1 carries out its antibacterial activity by folding to an amphiphilic helix to interact specifically with lipidic bilayer, resulting in a permeability change.Magainin-1 has broad-spectrum, non-specific activity against a wide range of micro-organisms including viruses as HSV-1 and HSV-2, gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, protozoa, yeasts and fungi. Magainin-1 may also be hemolytic and cytotoxic to cancer cells.Besides its antimicrobial activity, Magainin-1 presents an antifungal activity against some pathogens such as Candida Albicans with a antifungal activity of 4.15 uM. Recently, it has also been shown that magainin-1 can induce apoptosis of some leukemia cells at a concentration of 10 to 50 nM.