The antimicrobial agent melittin exhibits powerful in vitro inhibitory effects on the Lyme disease spirochete.

@article{Lubke1997TheAA,
  title={The antimicrobial agent melittin exhibits powerful in vitro inhibitory effects on the Lyme disease spirochete.},
  author={Lori L. Lubke and Claude F. Garon},
  journal={Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America},
  year={1997},
  volume={25 Suppl 1},
  pages={
          S48-51
        }
}
  • L. LubkeC. Garon
  • Published 1 July 1997
  • Biology
  • Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America
Borrelia burgdorferi has demonstrated a capacity to resist the in vitro effects of powerful eukaryotic and prokaryotic metabolic inhibitors. However, treatment of laboratory cultures on Barbour-Stoenner-Kelly medium with melittin, a 26-amino acid peptide contained in honeybee venom, showed immediate and profound inhibitory effects when they were monitored by dark-field microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and optical density measurements. Furthermore, at melittin… 

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