Design, synthesis and analysis of anti-tuberculosis peptides

Tuberculosis is one of the most wide spread infectious diseases that result in the deaths of millions of people worldwide annually1. The evolution of multi-drug resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), threatens the effectiveness of current therapy necessitating the need for novel treatment options2. Antimicrobial peptides that form part of innate immunity in almost all forms of life are attractive candidates for treating infections from multi-drug resistant bacterial strains3. Our continued interest in the synthesis of novel antimicrobial peptides containing nonprotein amino acids, led us recently to focus on developing novel antimicrobial peptides against Mtb. Studies on the chemical synthesis and analysis of short seleno peptides and longer, largely hydrophobic peptides targeted at different pathogenic factors of Mtb will be presented.