Immune & Antimicrobial
Cecropins
Insects have no antibodies and no adaptive immune system, and they survive in places that would kill us on chemistry like this. Cecropins were the first of it to be found, pulled out of moth pupae, and they kill by tearing the bacterial membrane open rather than interfering with its chemistry. Against an Acinetobacter isolate resistant to colistin, one of the last-resort antibiotics, cecropin P1 worked at almost exactly the concentration it needed for an ordinary strain: the resistance mechanism bought the bacterium nothing. That was one isolate in a broth tube, and the mouse studies where animals survive used engineered cecropin-like peptides rather than natural ones; no cecropin has been given to a person in any study on file.
Last updated
Mechanism
Cationic alpha-helical peptides that insert into and permeabilise bacterial membranes, causing leakage and lysis.
Reported effects
What sources associate with this compound. Reported categories, not outcomes we have graded — each would need its own citation and rung.
- Antibacterial research
- Membrane-active antimicrobial research
- Resistant pathogen context
Dosing on file unverified
No established human dose; preclinical only
Carried from a source that labels it unverified, and reproduced with that label attached. A record of what is reported, not a recommendation. No citation on this page establishes it.
Literature on file 6
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in vitro
Antimicrobial activity of cecropins (1996, cited 174x) graded on: an in-vitro system — read from the indexed abstract — “in vitro”
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review or editorial
Exploring the Structure-Activity Relationships and Molecular Mechanisms of Black Soldier Fly-Derived Antimicrobial Peptides with AI Insights. graded on: indexed as "review-article" - secondary literature, not a study — “review-article”
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review or editorial
A Comprehensive Review of the Antimicrobial Peptide CM11: Structure, Biological Properties, and Therapeutic Prospects. graded on: indexed as "Review" - secondary literature, not a study — “Review”
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in vitro
Research note: Antimicrobial properties of commercial black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) meal against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. graded on: antibacterial assays of commercial larvae meal against bacterial cultures — read from the abstract — “abstract review”
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in vitro
Vector venom: venomics of Aedes albopictus reveals a large enzyme repertoire and novel cecropins with activity against E. coli. graded on: venom proteomics with antibacterial activity assays — read from the abstract — “abstract review”
Not graded
1 citation whose study design could not be read from the title. Left ungraded rather than guessed at.
- not graded
Notes unverified prose
No human trials identified; in vitro anticancer activity; leech cecropin documented mechanistically only; no human evidence; No human trials; preclinical only
Not on file 10
8 of the 8 fields we track hold nothing on this record, and each says why. 2 further absences are named below. A blank field is a bug; a named absence is a finding.
- molecular weightnothing we hold supplies it
- molecular formulanothing we hold supplies it
- CAS registry numbernothing we hold supplies it
- PubChem identifiernothing we hold supplies it
- amino-acid sequencenothing we hold supplies it
- SMILES stringnothing we hold supplies it
- InChInothing we hold supplies it
- InChI keynothing we hold supplies it
- half-lifenothing we hold supplies it
- route of administrationnothing we hold supplies it
Each field links to every other record missing the same thing. The full ledger holds 765 gaps across 163 records.