An overview of antimicrobial peptides and the latest advances in their development

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The recent dramatic increase in the incidence of antimicrobial resistance has been recognized by organizations such as the United Nations and World Health Organization as well as the governments of the USA and several European countries. A relatively new weapon in the fight against severe infections caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria is antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). These include colistin, currently regarded as the last line of antimicrobial therapy against multi-drug resistant microorganisms.

Areas covered: Here, the authors provide an overview of the current research on AMPs. The focus is AMPs currently being developed for the treatment of recalcitrant bacterial infections, the synergies of AMPs and antibiotics, and the activity of AMPs against biofilm. This review also includes a brief introduction into the use of AMPs in infections caused by Mycobacterium, fungi, and parasites.

Expert opinion: In research into new antimicrobials, AMPs are gaining increasing attention. While many are natural and are produced by a wide variety of organisms, others are being newly designed and chemically synthesized in the laboratory to achieve novel antimicrobial agents. The same strategy to fight infections in nature is thus being effectively exploited to safeguard human and animal health.

KEYWORDS:

• Antimicrobial peptides
• resistance
• cationic peptides
• antimicrobial agents
• defensins

Article highlights

• Antimicrobial peptides, potentially, offer advantages to become useful antimicrobials as they are less prone to generate microbial resistance.

• There are circa of 20 new antimicrobial peptides in diferent stages of development.

• Natural antimicrobial peptides could be a starting point for the research on antimicrobial peptides.

• Due to the main mechanism of action antimicrobial peptides could be a useful hope when used in combination with classical antibiotics.

• Peptides with anti-mycobacterial, anti-fungal and anti-parasitic activities constitute also a promising family of compounds.

This box summarizes key points contained in the article.

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr Wendy Ran for editing the manuscript.

Declaration of interest

F Rabanal and M Viñas are members of the ENABLE (European Gram-Negative Antibacterial Engine) European consortium (IMI-ND4BB). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Additional information

Funding

All the authors are supported by the University of Barcelona. F Rabanal is also supported by the Fundació Bosch i Gimpera, Xarxa de Referència en Biotecnologia (XRB, Generalitat de Catalunya) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT Health).