Small Wonders: Peptides for Disease Control

Content: Immunomodulatory cationic peptide therapeutics : a new paradigm in infection and immunity -- Structure/function link between cytokine domains and natural and designed lytic peptides : medical promise -- The potential of frog skin antimicrobial peptides for development into therapeutically valuable anti-infective agents -- Obstacles and solutions to the use of cationic antimicrobial peptides in the treatment of cancer -- Lytic peptides as anti-cancer therapeutics : lessons learned from a novel design approach -- Strategies for designing peptide immunogens to elicit : helical conformation-specific antibodies reactive with native proteins -- Defensins in viral infection -- "GENOPEP," a topical cream in the treatment of burn wounds -- Developing influenza antigen microarrays for seroprofiling -- pH-directed self-assembling helical peptide conformation -- Controlling symbiotic microbes with antimicrobial peptides -- Antimicrobial peptides for plant disease control : from discovery to application -- Antimicrobial peptides as a promising alternative for plant disease protection -- Strategies for controlling plant diseases and mycotoxin contamination using antimicrobial synthetic peptides -- Antifungal plant defensins : structure-activity relationships, modes of action, and biotech applications -- Antifungal peptides : exploiting non-lytic mechanisms and cell penetration properties -- Thionin antifungal peptide synthesis in transgenic barley -- Expression of designed anti-microbial peptides in theobroma cacao L. trees reduces leaf necrosis caused by phytophthora spp -- Antimicrobial peptides for fire blight control -- Thionins : nature's weapons of mass protection -- Transgenic expression of antimicrobial peptides in plants : strategies for enhanced disease resistance, improved productivity, and production of therapeutics.