The cationic peptide magainin II is antimicrobial for Burkholderia cepacia-complex strains.

This study was undertaken to determine the antibacterial activity of eight cationic antimicrobial peptides towards strains of genomovars I-V of the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) in time-kill assays. All but one of the peptides failed to show activity against the panel of test strains. The exception was magainin II, a 23 aa peptide isolated from the epidermis of the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, which exhibited significant bactericidal activity for Bcc genomovars most frequently associated with lung infection of patients with cystic fibrosis. In vitro studies indicated that magainin II protected a human bronchial epithelial cell line (BEAS-2B) from killing by Bcc and suggest that this peptide may have therapeutic potential against these organisms.