Dual Activity Microbial Peptides Catalog

Antibiotic resistance and cancer represent two of the most pressing global health challenges. In recent years, peptides have emerged as a promising molecular class to address these issues, with antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in particular attracting attention as alternatives to conventional antibiotics. Notably, some AMPs have also been found to exhibit anticancer peptide (ACP) properties, thus possessing dual activity. Despite this potential, ACPs remain underrepresented in current databases compared to AMPs, largely due to the under-exploration of microbial sources. In this study, we adopted a consensus-based strategy using three ACP prediction tools and two AMP prediction tools to identify candidate peptides with dual activity. Using these tools, we screened a total of 124,051,427 microbial peptides from publicly available small open reading frame (smORF) catalogues and identified 40,251 non-toxic peptides that display dual activity. These were compiled into Dual Activity Microbial Peptides Catalog (DAMPC), a curated and searchable resource of dual-activity, non-toxic microbial peptide sequences.