Human Beta Defensins bind specifically to the human MC1 Receptor

Beta-Defensin 1 & 2

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  Beta-Defensin 1

H-072-53  Product Details Page

Beta-Defensin 2

H-072-48  Product Details Page

G-072-48  Product Details Page

H-072-48  Product Details Page

Beta-Defensin 3

H-072-42  Product Details Page

Beta-Defensin 8

H-072-44  Product Details Page

Isomoto H., et al. World J Gastroenterol  2005 August 21;11(31):4782-4787

Defensins to the rescue.

Human neutrophils secrete the antimicrobial peptides a-defensin-1, -2, and -3 in response to bacterial infection. These peptides form dimeric structures that contain a total of six b-strands (purple arrows). The positively charged side chains of a-defensin-3 are shown in blue, negative charges in red, and disulfide bonds in orange.

Tomas Gan. Science 1 November 2002: Vol. 298. no. 5595, pp. 977 - 979

Figure 2. Although murine beta-defensin 2 is attracted to iDCs via CCR6 (8), TLR-4 is the receptor for DC activation. Both mDF2-beta and LPS, but not MCP-3 fusion protein (MCP3), induce maturation of iDCs from CCR6 KO mice (A). The CCR6 KO phenotype was verified by PCR analysis. Black bar, CD11c+ / B7.2+ / CD40+; hatched bars, CD11c+/B7.2+/I-Ahigh (MHC class II). Data are representative of two independent experiments. (B) iDCs from the mice with TLR-4 mutation or TLR-4 locus deletion failed to mature by treatment with mDF2-beta or LPS (C3H/HeJ and C5710ScNr, respectively), compared with DCs from wild-type mice (C3H/HeN). DCs were treated with LPS (10 ng/ml) or recombinant proteins (5 µg/ml). Open bar, C3H/HeN; hatched bar, C3H/HeJ; and cross-hatched bar, C5710ScNr. Experiment was repeated three times. (C) Activation of the luciferase reporter gene with mDF2-beta. Data are representative of two independent experiments. Cells were transiently cotransfected with murine TLR-4 and MD2 and treated with mDF2-beta (5 or 25 µg, mDF2-beta 5 or mDF2-beta 25) or control recombinant protein sFv315 at 5 or 25 µg/ml. All samples were in culture medium (CM) containing 10 µg/ml polymixin B. Control group was treated with 10 ng/ml LPS in CM without polymixin B (11). A representative recombinant protein N24mDF2-beta (fig. S1) was used as a source of mDF2-Beta.

Biragyn A, et al. Science. 2002 Nov 1;298(5595):1025-9.

Synthetic human Beta-Defensin-2

Mouse Beta-Defensin-8 is available for your research

Sequence alignment of mammalian beta-defensins (BD).
The alignment includes the sequences of four human defensins (hBD-1, hBD-2, hBD-3, hBD-4), six murine defensins (mBD-1 to mBD-4, mBD-7, mBD-8), three bovine defensins (bBD-1, bBD-2, bBD-12), and the bovine tracheal anitmicrobial peptide (bTAP). Strictly conserved amino acid residues are highlighted by a black box and residues occurring with a frequency of 50% are marked by gray boxes. The alignment was generated using the programs ClustalW (Higgins et al. 1992) and Alscript (Barton 1993). Because of the low sequence similarity, DALI analysis (Holm and Sander 1996) of the three-dimensional structures was used to allow a correct placement of the gaps in the sequences of mBD-7 and mBD-8. Elements of secondary structure found in hBD-1, hBD-2, mBD-7, and mBD-8 are schematically indicated below the alignment. The numbering scheme refers to the full-length hBD-2 including the amino-terminal signal sequence.

BAUER F., et al. Protein Science (2001), 10:2470–2479

Peptide sequence of hBD-3.
The deduced amino acid sequence (single-letter code) of the native hBD-3 peptide based on the complementary DNA sequence obtained from human keratinocytes and tracheal epithelia cells is shown. For comparison, amino acid sequences of the human beta-defensins hBD-1 and hBD-2, bovine epithelial beta-defensins TAP, LAP, and EBD bovine neutrophil beta-defensin BNBD-12, as well as the beta-defensin consensus sequence (including the putative disulfide bridges) are aligned. (The dashes in the beta-defensin sequences represent gaps due to the alignment).

Jürgen Harder et al. J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 276, Issue 8, 5707-5713, February 23, 2001

Tissue expression of hBD-3 mRNA.
Low hBD-3 mRNA expression (analyzed by real-time RT-PCR) was detected in many tissues (A). Normal skin and tonsils showed the highest hBD-3 transcript level. (n.d., not detected.) hBD-3 mRNA is expressed in cultivated human primary keratinocytes (B) or primary tracheal epithelial cells (C) and is up-regulated by treatment of the cells with heat-inactivated bacteria (108 cells/ml) or TNF-alpha (10 ng/ml) for 6 h. The mucoid clinical isolate of P. aeruginosa proved to be the strongest inducer of hBD-3. Bars represent the relative hBD-3 transcript levels normalized to beta-actin transcript levels.

Jürgen Harder et al. J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 276, Issue 8, 5707-5713, February 23, 2001

Schematic representation of the solution structures of mBD-7 (A), mBD-8 (B) and hBD-1( C). The elements of secondary structure and the disulfide bonds are indicated. Same orientation as in Fig. 3a. The figure was drawn with Molscript (Kraulis 1991) and Raster 3D (Merritt and Murphy 1994). (D) Overlay of the structures of the two human defensins hBD-1and hBD-2 (dark gray) with the structures of the two murine defensins mBD-7 and mBD-8 (light gray); figure drawn with SYBYL 6.5.

BAUER F., et al. Protein Science (2001), 10:2470–2479

Electrostatic surface plots of the most representative NMR structures of the three human -defensins. HBD1, HBD2, and HBD3 are diagramed from left to right in the figure. In the top half of the figure the C terminus of each of the structures is positioned on the right, and the N-terminal helix is at the top, whereas in the bottom half of the figure the structures are rotated 180°, and the C termini are now on the left, whereas the N-terminal helical regions remain at the top. The basic regions of the protein are colored blue, whereas the red regions are acidic. This figure was generated with GRASP (62).

Schibli D. J., et al. J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 277, Issue 10, 8279-8289, March 8, 2002

Possible orientations of two HBD3 monomers to form a dimer. Intermonomer hydrogen bonds between strand 2 of each of the monomers would establish a 6-stranded -sheet. The dimer interface could be stabilized by the electrostatic interaction of Lys-32 and Glu-28 in addition to inter-monomer hydrogen bonds between the side chains of Gln-29. It should be noted that the positioning of the two monomers is only a model to illustrate the potential interactions if strand 2 were the dimer interface. Atoms of the two monomers may be overlapping, and correct bond distances have not been accounted for. This figure was created using the program MOLMOL (51).

Schibli D. J., et al. J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 277, Issue 10, 8279-8289, March 8, 2002

Proposed salt-bridge between Lys-17 and Glu-27 of HBD3. This figure was generated with the program MOLMOL (51).

Schibli D. J., et al. J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 277, Issue 10, 8279-8289, March 8, 2002

Sequence homology of HBD1-3 and bovine tracheal antimicrobial protein (TAP). Homologous residues among the defensins are highlighted. It should be noted that whereas the 42-residue sequence of HBD1 has been used for the alignment, the alignment does not alter for the 36-residue fragment used in this study. In addition to the sequence homology between the -defensins, the net positive charge is also indicated. a, the net positive charge for both the 42-residue and the 36-residue HBD1 peptides is indicated. Alignment was performed with the ClustalX program (61).

Schibli D. J., et al. J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 277, Issue 10, 8279-8289, March 8, 2002

Ribbon diagrams of the three human -defensins. A, HBD1; B, HBD2; C, HBD3. All three structures are in approximately the same orientation, with the three-disulfide bonds shown in gold. This figure was generated with the program MOLMOL (51).

Schibli D. J., et al. J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 277, Issue 10, 8279-8289, March 8, 2002

Coomassie-stained 16% Tricine gel of the human -defensins before (lanes 1, 3, and 5) and after reduction of the disulfide bonds with dithiothreitol (lanes 2, 4, and 6). Lanes 1 and 2, HBD1; lanes 3 and 4, HBD2; lanes 5 and 6, HBD3; lane 7, protein molecular mass markers.

Schibli D. J., et al. J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 277, Issue 10, 8279-8289, March 8, 2002

Stereo-diagrams of the backbone trace of the 20 lowest energy structures of HBD3 with residues 6-44 overlaid (A) and HBD1 with residues 2-35 overlaid (B). The backbone and heavy atom r.m.s. distances of HBD3 are 0.616 and 1.337 Å for residues 6-45. The backbone and heavy atom r.m.s. distances of HBD1 are 0.451 and 0.992 Å for residues 2-35. This figure was generated with the program MOLMOL (51).

NOEs observed for HBD1 after the final ARIA run. A, short and medium range NOEs. The strong, medium, and weak NOEs are signified by a decrease in the relative intensity of each of the lines. Those NOEs that were ambiguous by either chemical shift overlap with other atoms or were overlapped by the H2O resonance are signified as dotted lines. The CSI of the H backbone atoms is also represented in addition to the location of the secondary structures in the sequence. B, NOEs between the separate strands of the -sheets. Long dashed lines represent unambiguous NOEs, whereas short dashed lines represent ambiguous NOEs.

Nishi Y., et al. World J Gastroenterol 2005;11(1):99-103