Antimicrobial peptides in bone regeneration: mechanism and potential

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are small-molecule peptides with a unique antimicrobial mechanism. Other notable biological activities of AMPs, including anti-inflammatory, angiogenesis, and bone formation effects, have recently received widespread attention. These remarkable bioactivities, combined with the unique antimicrobial mechanism of action of AMPs, have led to their increasingly important role in bone regeneration.

Areas covered

In this review, on the one hand, we aimed to summarize information about the AMPs that are currently used for bone regeneration by reviewing published literature in the PubMed database. On the other hand, we also highlight some AMPs with potential roles in bone regeneration and their possible mechanisms of action.

Expert opinion

The translation of AMPs to the clinic still faces many problems, but their unique antimicrobial mechanisms and other conspicuous biological activities suggest great potential. An in-depth understanding of the structure and mechanism of action of AMPs will help us to subsequently combine AMPs with different carrier systems and perform structural modifications to reduce toxicity and achieve stable release, which may be a key strategy for facilitating the translation of AMPs to the clinic.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Antimicrobial peptides
• bone regeneration
• inflammation
• angiogenesis
• osteoblast
• osteoclast

Article highlights

• AMPs demonstrate promising effect in enhancing fracture healing and repairing infected bone defects, not only due to their unique antimicrobial properties but also their diverse biological activities.

• The structure of AMPs, such as the N-terminal acylation ratio, plays a significant role in blocking and inhibiting LPS-induced inflammation.

• AMPs also modulate immune cells, which are closely related to inflammation, thus establishing a pathway that connects AMPs, immune cells, and bone cells

• VEGF and VEGFR are closely related to the ability of AMPs to promote vascular regeneration, thus exploring their specific molecular mechanisms can help facilitate the development of more effective AMPs.

• Structural modifications of AMPs, and a combination of AMPs with different carrier systems and surface modifications, represent the most desirable and optimized strategies to advance the clinical translation of AMPs.

Declarations of interest

The authors have no 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. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

Q Liu: conceptualization, visualization, investigation, writing – review & editing, supervision, funding acquisition. ZC Wang: conceptualization, investigation, writing – original draft, visualization. XM Chen: conceptualization, investigation, writing – original draft, visualization. L Yan: conceptualization, writing – review & editing. WJ Wang: visualization, writing – review & editing. PJ Zheng: visualization, writing – review & editing. A Mohammadreza: writing – review & editing

Additional information

Funding

This work is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [52003112], the College Students’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Training Program [National Program-202012121009 & 202212121014, Provincial Program-202212121110, University Program-X202012121387] and the Nanfang Hospital President Foundation [2023A023].