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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Antimicrobials, Resistance and Chemotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1568451
This article is part of the Research Topic Benefit and Risk on Drug-drug Interactions in Infections View all 4 articles
Synergistic Effects of Recombinant Expressed Fowlicidin and Thymosin α1 Hybrid Peptides in Modulating Inflammation and Infection in Avian Macrophages
Provisionally accepted
Baseer Ahmad 1,2*
Zaheer Abbas 2
Xubiao Wei 2 Khasif Hussain 1 Atif Rehman 1
Dayong Si 2 Christina Hölzel 3
Rijun Zhang 2*- 1 Muhammad Nawaz Shareef University of Agriculture, Multan, Pakistan
- 2 Laboratory of Feed Biotechnology, State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 5 China, Beijing, China
- 3 Christian Alberchts University of Keil, Kiel, 24118, Germany., Keil, Germany
The hybrid FowlTα1 peptide represents a promising biomolecule synthesized from two naturally occurring peptides, namely Fowlicidins (Fowl) and Thymosin α1 (α1). This particular peptide exhibits remarkable anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties and demonstrates the capacity to effectively interact with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), while simultaneously inducing minimal cytotoxicity and hemolytic repercussions. Despite its potential, the high cost of this peptide has limited its use. To overcome this limitation, the present study developed a cost-effective and biocompatible method for expressing the FowlTα1 peptide in Pichia pastoris (P. pastoris). We obtained a transgenic strain of the hybrid FowlTα1 peptide with a predicted molecular weight of 3.1 kDa. The FowlTα1 peptide was purified followed by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC), yielding 7.2 mg with a purity of 98.2%. Furthermore, physiochemical and structural analysis revealed an amphipathic helical configuration that enhances bioactivity. Moreover, in LPS-stimulated HD11 macrophages, the hybrid FowlTα1 peptide significantly reduced the release of nitric oxide (NO), TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β in a dosedependent manner (p<0.05) and displayed robust antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli (E. coli) compared to conventional antibiotic. Overall, the results of this study highlighted the production method and potential of the FowlTα1 peptide as a novel therapeutic agent for antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-endotoxin applications.
Keywords: Hybrid peptide, Yeast expression, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, endotoxin neutralization
Received: 29 Jan 2025; Accepted: 26 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ahmad, Abbas, Wei, Hussain, Rehman, Si, Hölzel and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Baseer Ahmad, Muhammad Nawaz Shareef University of Agriculture, Multan, Pakistan
Rijun Zhang, Laboratory of Feed Biotechnology, State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 5 China, Beijing, China
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