Mucosal antimicrobial peptides accumulate in airway mucins

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and mucins are components of the airway secretions and both contribute to the innate host defense system of the lung. One of the prominent physical features of AMPs is their strong positive charge at neutral pH. Mucins are macromolecular molecules with heavily glycosylated side chains containing sialic acid and N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate that determine their strong negative charge. It was the aim of the study to test whether these opposite charges result in interactions between the two classes of molecules. We used a lectin based assay to measure binding of mucins isolated from…