# Cathelicidin in Skin Immunity

> **NIH NIH R37** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · 2024 · $611,296

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY (See instructions):
This project has sought to understand the functions of the cathelicidin family of antimicrobial peptides in
mammalian immunity. Cathelicidins are an evolutionarily conserved gene family, with orthologous genes
present in several species. Conservation between family members resides primarily in the amino-terminal
precursor domain. The carboxy-terminal peptide domain has potent immunological activity, acting as an
endogenous direct antimicrobial that kills some pathogens. Our previous work has shown that this activity
is essential for resistance to invasive bacterial infection by S. aureus and Group A Streptococcus and
associated with several human inflammatory diseases. However, our group and others have found that
some of the human disease associations with cathelicidin are likely not a consequence of its antibiotic
activity but rather due to its immune activating activity. Several important observations prior to year 1
suggested that the human cathelicidin peptide LL37 will amplify inflammation by presenting nucleic acids
to cytosolic receptors. We termed this process " innate immune vetting " .

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10661128
- **Project number:** 4R37AI052453-21
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Richard L Gallo
- **Activity code:** R37 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $611,296
- **Award type:** 4C
- **Project period:** 2002-09-15 → 2029-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10661128

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10661128, Cathelicidin in Skin Immunity (4R37AI052453-21). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10661128. Licensed CC0.

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