Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a class of templates with application potential for
drug development. Amphibians are important sources of AMPs. Duttaphrynus melanostictus is the main source of
traditional Chinese medicine "
Chansu", which has anti-
infection effect while without a clear mechanism. This study aimed to find the
cathelicidin peptide in D. melanostictus and then investigate the activity in vivo and in vitro, and an
AMP-encoding gene (
cathelicidin-DM, GenBank: KJ820824.1) was obtained from the constructed cDNA library of D. melanostictus. The MIC test and
SYTOX Green uptake were used for the evaluation of the bactericidal capacity and mechanisms. The serum stability tests were used for the evaluation of the application potential. The skin
wound infection model and in vivo imaging were used for in vitro application of possibility evaluation. The results showed that
cathelicidin-DM was a 37
amino acid AMP with good bactericidal ability, which was similar to
melittin: both can kill bacteria within 15 min. Moreover,
cathelicidin-DM exhibits good therapeutic potential in the mouse
wound infection model, and it can be enriched to the site of
infection for treatment. Thus,
cathelicidin-DM could be a new template for antimicrobial
drug development given its good antibacterial activity in vivo and in vitro.