Recently, a research team led by Professor Haixia Chen from Tianjin University has made a great discovery in the identification and the related mechanism of natural antimicrobial peptides, andpublished an article entitled "Identification and antimicrobial activity evaluation of three peptides from Laba garlic and the related mechanism" as the cover paper in“Food & Function”, an international scientific journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (JCR1, Top).

At present, the abuse of antibiotics is the main cause of drug-resistant bacteria, which seriously endangers people's health, so finding new types of antibiotic substitutes is one of the effective ways to solve the problem of drug resistance. As an important component of the natural defense system of mostliving organisms against invading pathogens, antimicrobial peptides have direct bactericidal effects and little tendency to trigger drug resistance. Theycan be used either alone or together with antibiotics to kill pathogens, showing a great potential as biological antibacterial drugs.

Professor Haixia Chen’s team haslong been focusing on natural pharmaceutical chemistry research. In the published paper,three novel antimicrobial peptides were isolated and identified in Laba garlic (a traditional Chinese food), and their antimicrobial activity and mechanismwere further studied. The mechanism of "barrel tunnel model" and "carpet stave model" were furtherdemonstrated, whichprovided a theoretical basis for the development and application of natural antimicrobial peptide drugs, paving way for new means of disease treatment.

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Foundation.

By the School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology

Editors: Eva Yin & Doris Harrington