Peptides from Royal Jelly: studies on the antimicrobial activity of jelleins, jelleins analogs and synergy with temporins.

Peptides isolated from natural fonts are the object of several studies aimed at finding new molecules possessing antibacterial activity. We focused our studies on peptides originally isolated from the Royal Jelly, the jelleins and on some analogs having a UV reporter at the N- or C-terminus. We found that jelleins are mainly active against gram-positive bacteria; interestingly, they act in synergy with peptides belonging to the family of temporins such as temporin A and temporin B against Staphylococcus aureus A170 and Listeria monocytogenes.