Histatin-8 - Antimicrobial Peptides - AMP

Histatins are histidine rich cationic peptides produced in salivary glands and released into the saliva and have strong antifungal activity. The main histatins that make up more than 80% of histatins in saliva are histatin-1, histatin-3 and histatin-5. There are two histatins genes, one which encodes histatin-1, and one that encodes histatin-3, all other histatins are derivatives of these two histatins. Histatin-8 is a cleavage product of histatins-3 corresponding to part of its central region.