Scientists found that attaching the antimicrobial peptide LL‑37 (and indolicidin) to tiny carbon nanotubes lets the peptide work at doses 1,000 times lower than when used alone, still boosting immune signaling and protecting immune cells from bacterial infection in lab tests.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have the potential to serve as an alternative to antibiotic. AMPs usually exert bactericidal activity via direct killing of microbial pathogens. Reports have proposed that by harnessing innate immune activation, AMPs can regulate pathogen invasion and may control infection. It has been reported that AMPs could be utilized to activate the innate mucosal immune response in order to eliminate pathogenic infections. This way of controlling pathogen infection, by activating host immunity, confers the potential to the select AMPs to alleviate the problem of antibiotic resistance. Among various AMPs tested LL-37 and indolicidin, showed promise to be potential candidates for eliciting enhanced host innate immune responses. LL-37 and indolicidin had exhibited substantial innate immune activation in both human and murine macrophages. Dosage for each of the AMPs, however, was high with adverse side effects. In this study, we reported that upon conjugation with carbon nanotubes (CNT), each AMP remained biologically functional at a concentration that was 1000-fold less than the dosage required for free AMP to remain active in the cells. Current study also revealed that while indolicidin induced signalling events mediated through the TNFRSF1A pathway in THP1 cells, followed by activation of NFκB and c-JUN pathways, treatment of cells with LL-37 induced signalling events by activating IL1R, with subsequent activation of NFκB and NFAT2. Thp1 cells, primed with CNT conjugated LL-37 or indolicidin, are protected against Salmonella typhimurium infection at 16 h post challenge.