Determination of the antimicrobial activity of peptides analogous to human cathellicide LL37 in Candida albicans

As a result of the growing problem of microbial resistance to conventional antibiotics, several antimicrobial peptides are being studied in order to achieve broad-spectrum alternative treatments, especially for biofilm-producing microorganisms. This is the case of Candida albicans, a commensal yeast that is part of the human microbiota, but that in immunosuppressed patients can cause cutaneous, subcutaneous and systemic infections, with the aggravating factor of presenting resistance to the therapy conventionally used for its treatment.
Antimicrobial peptides are present in animals, plants and other microorganisms, being part of the innate immune system. Human cathelicidin LL37, cationic antimicrobial peptide, is a molecule containing both a catheline domain and an antimicrobial C-terminal domain. "Catelina" is an acronym for catepsin L inhibitor. The importance of the use of LL-37 is not only due to its intrinsic antimicrobial characteristics but also because of the synergic and antagonistic interactions it presents with other immunological mediators; these underlying properties of LL-37 have been exploited to create regulatory peptides of innate defense that represent a new immunomodulatory approach to the treatment of infections.