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Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), a peptide that have been proved to solve the rising problem of bacterial resistance. Our target is to develop it into a potential material of wound dressing.
"Ouch ! It's hurt!" At this instant, we might have got hurt already. As the wound exposure to the air, it became vulnerable to the bacteria. Bacteria starts to "chew off" those wounds and causing
infections. Bacterial infections could cause the wound harder to recover. In some cases, the infection could lead to severe injury and cause the amputation. Currently antibiotics is the most popular way to treat bacteria, therefore, Multi-drug-resistant (MDR) occurs. These are some problems we discovered that happen in our everyday life.
As the result of our discussion, we discovered a kind of peptide called AMPs. It has extensive ability in disinfection. Unlike antibiotics, AMPs use the chargeability of cell membrane to affect the bacteria, causing bacteria to collapse, and solve the problem of resistance from occurring. We choose two kinds of AMPs: Epinecidin-1 and Signiferin. Epinecidin-1 is a peptide came from fish (Epinephelus coioides).
Signiferin came from toads and frogs. They are all extracted from the skin mucus. In addition, epinecidin-1 has the ability to help wounds healing.
We use E. coli to express our AMPs (epi-1 and signiferin). When E. coli received the signal peptide that bacteria release, E. coli start transcription and translation, then release our AMPs on hurt.
Our ultimate goal is to use the difference in size and chargeability among peptides, proteins and E. coli to develop filtration membrane and fabric with chargeability, let them separate from each other, and produce as dressing. The dressing will acting directly on the wounds, treat the bacteria and help the wound to recover.
Dressing made of AMPs, make world a better place.
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