In vitro study reveals broad-spectrum potency and low toxicity for halictine-II against fungal and bacterial pathogens, indicating its promise as an antimicrobial agent.
Antibiotic resistance of microorganisms threatens global health and agriculture. Antimicrobial peptides can display broad-spectrum activity, making them candidate alternatives to antibiotics. Here, ten antimicrobial peptides were tested against fungal pathogens, including Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, Aspergillus niger, and Gram-negative (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus) pathogens. Aurein 1.2, halictine-II, and macropin-I showed broad-spectrum activity. In particular, halictine-II showed high potency combined with low hemolytic activity, with the MIC values across species being 5 to 90-fold lower than the observed hemolytic concentration.
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Zhang et al. (2026) studied this question.
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