# PepSAVI-MS for discovery of novel botanical antimicrobial peptides

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2021 · $258,474

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
 The continued evolution of antimicrobial resistance emphasizes the dire need for discovery of antibiotic
therapeutics with novel mechanisms of action. Technological advances in genome sequencing, drug library
creation, and structural informatics have not advanced infectious disease treatments sufficiently. While natural
products have long served as inspiration for novel therapeutic scaffolds, we posit peptide-derived entities offer
great potential to address current needs due to their unique mechanisms of action, penetration and selectively.
Herein, we describe our PepSAVI-MS pipeline to discover and characterize peptides with antimicrobial activity
through implementation of a hybrid bioassay-guided/peptidomics platform. We directly identify botanical
peptides contributing to bioactivity profiles using robust microbial bioassays optimized for peptide screening
and using a mass spectrometry-based peptidomics approach coupled to statistical modeling and informatics to
identify and further characterize these peptides at the molecular level. These potential lead compounds are
then tested against an extensive panel of clinical ESKAPE pathogens, as well as for favorable drug
characteristics and determination of mechanism-of-action. Our platform enables robust mining of plants and
other natural sources for peptidyl species with unique or broad-spectrum anti-infective properties and has the
potential to lead to the discovery of novel chemistries at the forefront of modern drug discovery.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10102252
- **Project number:** 5R01GM125814-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Leslie M. Hicks
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $258,474
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-05-01 → 2023-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10102252

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10102252, PepSAVI-MS for discovery of novel botanical antimicrobial peptides (5R01GM125814-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10102252. Licensed CC0.

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