Pathogenic bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to common antibiotics, stimulating an intensive search for new ones. Knowing that a class of medium-sized peptides (magainins¹) are widely used by host organisms as a defence against microbial invasion², we developed a -amino-acid oligomer (-peptide) that mimics these natural antibiotics and tested it for antimicrobial activity. We find not only that the activity of our -peptide is comparable to that of a magainin derivative but also that it is effective against four bacterial species, including two pathogens that are resistant to common antibiotics.

1. Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
2. Department of Pharmacology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA

Correspondence to: Samuel H. Gellman¹ e-mail: Email: gellman@chem.wisc.edu