Ceragenins and antimicrobial peptides kill bacteria through distinct mechanisms

Ceragenins are a family of synthetic amphipathic molecules designed to mimic the properties of naturally-occurring cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs). Although ceragenins have potent antimicrobial activity, whether their mode of action is similar to that of CAMPs has remained elusive. Here we report the results of a comparative study of the bacterial responses to two well-studied CAMPs, LL37 and colistin, and two ceragenins with related structures, CSA13 and CSA13.