This book offers an overview of our current understanding of host defense peptides and their potential for clinical applications as well as some of the obstacles to this. The chapters, written by leading experts in the field, detail the number and diversity of host defense peptides, and discuss the therapeutic potential not only of antibacterial, but also of antifungal, antiviral, plant antimicrobial and anticancer host defense peptides. The authors provide new insights into their mechanisms of action and their immunomodulatory properties, and review recent advances in the design of novel therapeutic molecules. Lastly, their potential to prevent preterm births and Staphylococcus aureus infections is highlighted. The book is of interest to researchers, industry and clinicians alike.

This book offers an overview of our current understanding of host defense peptides and their potential for clinical applications as well as some of the obstacles to this. The chapters, written by leading experts in the field, detail the number and diversity of host defense peptides, and discuss the therapeutic potential not only of antibacterial, but also of antifungal, antiviral, plant antimicrobial and anticancer host defense peptides. The authors provide new insights into their mechanisms of action and their immunomodulatory properties, and review recent advances in the design of novel therapeutic molecules. Lastly, their potential to prevent preterm births and Staphylococcus aureus infections is highlighted. The book is of interest to researchers, industry and clinicians alike.

The Amphipathic Helix is a comprehensive volume discussing amphipathic helices in systems as diverse as serum lipoproteins, lung surfactant, cytotoxic peptides, ion channels, mitochondrial targeting, peptide hormones, G proteins, T-cell recognition, DNA binding proteins, and antifreeze proteins. The book also includes general introductory material that defines amphipathic helices, discusses methods to identify amphipathic helical segments from the amino acid sequence of a protein, illustrates how amphipathic helices can be used in the de novo design of peptide and protein structures, and describes how these helices stabilize protein structures. There is also a section on techniques to determine helix orientation in a membrane environment using polarized attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy or solid state NMR spectroscopy. Recent developments on all these topics have been discussed by leading experts in this reference for researchers and students in biochemistry, biophysics, and pharmacology.