Antimicrobial peptides: Coming to the end of antibiotic era, the most promising agents

Abstract

Recently, because of the rising in multidrug resistance from infectious agents, there is a prompted interest for the development ofnew antimicrobial agents and new therapeutic strategies to combat the infections caused by the resistant bacteria. Among them, thenatural bactericidal compounds, such as antimicrobial cationic peptides (AMPs) seems very promising agents. AMPs are the importantcomponent of the innate immune response to the surrounding microorganisms. These substances which can be isolated from most ofthe living organisms, have various activities, like broad spectrum antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and antiprotozoal. However thereare some resistance mechanisms that affect the AMPs, because of the rapid action and existing more than one mechanism of action,development of resistance to AMPs is quite rare. Due to their many advantages and characteristics, AMPs looks like a good candidatefor being a new generation, active antimicrobial agents for antimicrobial chemotherapy against especially multi drug resistant bacteria and biofilms, either alone or in combination.