{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T04:34:40Z","timestamp":1787027680513,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,21]],"date-time":"2025-02-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1740096000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"the Science and Technology Project of the Education Department of Hunan Province","award":["22B0189"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["22B0189"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Biology"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a zoonotic bacterium widespread in the environment, highly transmissible, and responsible for significant economic losses and millions of cases of illness annually. The rise of multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains has rendered last-line antibiotics such as polymyxin and meropenem ineffective, making the development of new antibiotics urgent. Although D-CONGA-Q7 has broad-spectrum bactericidal activity, its underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. In this study, we used in vitro and in vivo experiments to demonstrate that D-CONGA-Q7 effectively kills both antibiotic-sensitive and multidrug-resistant strains of E. coli. D-CONGA-Q7 disrupts the cell membranes of Gram-negative bacteria, and the treatment of E. coli strain LN175 with D-CONGA-Q7 resulted in a significant up-regulation of the Mlac gene, suggesting that D-CONGA-Q7 may interact with phospholipids in the cell membrane. Furthermore, in treating K88-induced bacterial enteritis in the small intestine, D-CONGA-Q7 significantly reduced intestinal inflammation. In conclusion, this study provides a novel approach to combat drug-resistant E. coli.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/biology14030226","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,21]],"date-time":"2025-02-21T03:47:46Z","timestamp":1740109666000},"page":"226","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["The Antimicrobial Peptide D-CONGA-Q7 Eradicates Drug-Resistant E. coli by Disrupting Bacterial Cell Membranes"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Zonghan","family":"Jiang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Hunan Engineering Technology Research Center of Veterinary Drugs, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Leisheng","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Study and Discovery of Small Targeted Molecules of Hunan Province, Department of Pharmacy, School of Medicine, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410013, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuanyuan","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hunan Engineering Technology Research Center of Veterinary Drugs, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Haoyu","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hunan Engineering Technology Research Center of Veterinary Drugs, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yu","family":"Fu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hunan Engineering Technology Research Center of Veterinary Drugs, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4877-8199","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jiyun","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hunan Engineering Technology Research Center of Veterinary Drugs, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhiliang","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hunan Engineering Technology Research Center of Veterinary Drugs, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"26","DOI":"10.1038\/nrmicro2265","article-title":"Molecular mechanisms of Escherichia coli pathogenicity","volume":"8","author":"Croxen","year":"2010","journal-title":"Nat. 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