†These authors contributed equally.
Academic Editor: Graham Pawelec
Background: Inflammation is the body’s response to injury or infection
and is important for healing and eliminating pathogens; however, prolonged
inflammation is damaging and may lead to the development of chronic inflammatory
disorders. Recently, there has been interest in exploiting antimicrobial peptides
(AMPs) that exhibit immunoregulatory activities to treat inflammatory diseases.
Methods: In this study, we investigated the immunomodulatory effects of
lactoferrin-derived lactoferricin AMPs from three different species (bovine,
mouse, and human) with subtle differences in their amino acid sequences that
alter their antimicrobial action; to our knowledge, no other studies have
compared their immunomodulatory effects. Macrophages, key players in the
induction and propagation of inflammation, were used to investigate the effects
of species-specific lactoferricin peptides on inflammatory processes.
Results: Bovine lactoferricin was the only one of the three peptides
studied that downregulated lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced pro-inflammatory
cytokines, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-