Peptides and conjugates are described herein, including peptides having antimicrobial and/or anticancer properties, as are compositions, articles, and kits comprising such peptides and conjugates, and methods for using the peptides and conjugates.

The invention relates to antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). The invention also relates to uses, methods of treatment, pharmaceutical compositions and combinations with antimicrobial agents.

An isolated, non-naturally occurring cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) comprising the amino acid sequence:

TABLE-US-00001 [SEQ ID NO: 1] RRSRTARAGRPGRNSSRPSAPR
and sequences which have at least 60% similarity to SEQ ID NO: 1.

The invention relates to compositions including polynucleotides encoding polypeptides which have been chemically modified by replacing the uridines with 1-methyl-pseudouridine to improve one or more of the stability and/or clearance in tissues, receptor uptake and/or kinetics, cellular access by the compositions, engagement with translational machinery, mRNA half-life, translation efficiency, immune evasion, protein production capacity, secretion efficiency, accessibility to circulation, protein half-life and/or modulation of a cell's status, function, and/or activity.

A synthetic peptide including the sequence SHXGY (SEQ ID NO:2) is described as are methods of using the same for promoting wound healing and epithelial cell migration.

Computational systems and methods are described for identifying new α-helical antimicrobial peptides using a systemic consensus formula. Newly identified α-helical antimicrobial peptides are tested experimentally and show potent microbiocidal activities.

The present invention provides a covalent conjugate. The conjugate includes an antibody or antibody derivative, at least two LL37-derived polypeptides, and a payload. The antibody or antibody derivative targets a cell that has phosphatidylserine in its outer leaflet. The payload includes: a small molecule cytotoxic drug of less than 3 kDa, or a plurality thereof; or a peptide or protein of less than 100 kDa. Uses and methods of using these covalent conjugates are also provided, related to enhancing delivery of the antibody/derivative or the payload, e.g. to enhance therapeutic or diagnostic effectiveness.

Antimicrobial defensin peptide variants comprising modified C-terminal fragments of a defensin and nucleic acids encoding the same are disclosed. Compositions comprising the defensin variant peptides and methods of their use to control microbial infections of plants and vertebrate subjects as well as contamination of feedstuffs and foodstuffs are also disclosed.

The present disclosure is directed to a lysin-AMP polypeptide construct comprising: (a) a first component comprising the polypeptide sequence of: (i) SEQ ID NO: 118 (GN202); or (ii) a polypeptide having lysin activity and having at least 80% sequence identity with the polypeptide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 118 (GN202); or (iii) an active fragment of SEQ ID NO: 118 (GN202); and (b) a second component comprising the polypeptide sequence of at least one antimicrobial peptide (AMP), wherein the at least one AMP comprises SEQ ID NO: 114 (FIRL). Exemplary lysin-AMP polypeptides, such as GN370 (SEQ ID NO: 44) as well as methods of treating bacterial infections using the present lysin-AMP polypeptide constructs are also disclosed.

Provided herein, in some embodiments, are artificial secretion peptides capable of directing secretion from Lactobacillus for use, for example, in producing heterologous proteins, including therapeutic proteins.