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Antimicrobial Peptide Ll-37 And Recombinant Human Mannose-Binding Lectin Express Distinct Age- And Pathogen-Specific Antimicrobial Activity In Human Newborn Cord Blood In Vitro, Annette Scheid, Ning Li, Carleen Jeffers, Francesco Borriello, Sweta Joshi, Al Ozonoff, Matthew Pettengill, Ofer Levy

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Background: There is a need to prevent and treat infection in newborns. One approach is administration of antimicrobial proteins and peptides (APPs) such as LL-37, a membrane-active cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, and mannose-binding lectin (MBL), a pattern-recognition protein that binds to microbial surface polysaccharides resulting in opsonization and complement activation. Low plasma/serum levels of LL-37 and of MBL have been correlated with infection and exogenous administration of these agents may enhance host defense. Methods: The antimicrobial activity of LL-37 (15 µg/ml) or rMBL (0.5, 2 and 10 µg/ml) was tested in hirudin-anticoagulated preterm and term human cord blood (N = 12-14) …