Table 1.

Bacterial toxins neutralized by defensins

Class	Defensin	Toxin	Toxin Type	Effect of Defensins	References
α	HNP1–3	B. anthracis lethal factor (LF)	Enzymatic	Inhibition of LF activity, protect mice in vivo	(Kim et al., 2005)
	HNP1–3	Diphtheria toxin (DT), Pseudomonas exotoxin A (ETA)	Enzymatic	Inhibition of enzymatic activity of DT and ETA	(Kim et al., 2006)
	HNP1, HNP3, HD5	C. difficile toxin B (TcdB)	Enzymatic	Inhibition of enzymatic activity of TcdB	(Giesemann et al., 2008)
	HNP-1, HNP-3, HD-5	Cholesterol-dependent cytolysins (CDCs)	Pore-forming	Inhibition of hemolysis mediated by CDCs	(Lehrer et al., 2009)
	HNP1, HD5	V. cholerae and A. hydrophila MARTX	Enzymatic	Inhibition of enzymatic activity of actin crosslinking domain (ACD) and cysteine protease domain (CPD)	(Kudryashova et al., 2014b)
	HNP3	S. aureus Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL)	Pore-forming	Partially decreases PVL pore formation and PMN lysis	(Cardot-Martin et al., 2015)
β	hBD1, hBD2, hBD4	Neisseria gonorrhoeae gNarE	Enzymatic	Inhibition of auto-ADP-ribosyltransferase activity	(Rodas et al., 2016)
	hBD3	B. anthracis LF	Enzymatic	Inhibition of LF	(Wei et al., 2009)
θ	RTD1–3, Retrocyclins	B. anthracis LF	Enzymatic	Inhibition of enzymatic activity of LF, protect mice in vivo	(Wang et al., 2006; Welkos et al., 2011)
	RC1, RC101	V. cholerae and A. hydrophila MARTX	Enzymatic	Inhibition of enzymatic activity of ACD	(Kudryashova et al., 2015)
	RC101	Gardnerella vaginalis vaginolysin (VLY)	Pore-forming	Inhibition of cytolysis mediated by VLY	(Hooven et al., 2012)