No country for old antibiotics! Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) as next-generation treatment for skin and soft tissue infection

Navigating Antibacterial Frontiers: A Panoramic Exploration of Antibacterial Landscapes, Resistance Mechanisms, and Emerging Therapeutic Strategies

“…They are mostly bioactive proteins naturally produced by all types of living organisms as a host defense system, though some artificial AMPs have also been synthesized . AMPs are typically short (<100 amino acids) amphiphilic cationic peptides with a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity, an overall net charge of +2 to +11 with around 50% of hydrophobic residues, many positive residues (arginine, lysine, histidine), and a molecular weight of <10kD. ,− They can be divided into many ways: ribosomally synthesized peptides and nonribosomally synthesized peptides, , linear and cyclic peptides, or on the basis of their secondary structure. , In general, AMPs target the cell membranes of pathogens; more details on their mechanisms of actions can be found in reviews by Moretta et al, Zhu et al, and Zhang et al There are over 3000 natural AMPs as of November 2022 according to the Antimicrobial Peptide Database; some examples of them are glycopeptides, lipopeptides, lipoglycopeptides, lantibiotics, − defensins, and thiopeptides. − We will be briefly discussing the first three categories, but for more general information on emerging antibiotic peptides, structure–activity relationship (SAR) studies, strategies to improve AMP activity and biocompatibility, AMP applications, resistance, AMPs in clinical trials, etc., please refer to previous reviews cited in this paragraph. Self-assembled peptide nanomaterials are used to inhibit bacterial growth …”

How can we escape the ESKAPEs: Antimicrobial resistance mechanisms and what lies ahead?

“…Limited in vivo efficacy and toxicity to host cells are barriers to the approval of new AMPs for clinical use. Current research to overcome these drawbacks, for example, with nanoparticle drug delivery, may improve the effectiveness of AMPs in the future [ 45 , 46 ].…”

Navigating Antibacterial Frontiers: Landscape Analysis of Antibiotics, Resistance Mechanisms and Emerging Therapeutic Strategies

“…249 AMPs are typically short (<100 amino acids) amphiphilic cationic peptides with a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity, an overall net charge of +2 to +11, with around 50% of hydrophobic residues, many positive residues (arginine, lysine, histidine), and a molecular weight of <10kD. 248,[250][251][252] They can be divided into many ways: ribosomally synthesized peptides and non-ribosomally synthesized peptides, 253,254 linear and cyclic peptides, 255 or based on their secondary structure. 256,257 In general, antimicrobial peptides target the cell membranes of pathogens; more details on their mechanisms of actions can be found in reviews by Moretta et al, 248 Zhu et al, 258 and Zhang et al 250 There are over 3000 natural AMPs as of November 2022 according to the Antimicrobial Peptide Database, 259 some examples of them are glycopeptides, lipopeptides, lipoglycopeptides, lantibiotics, [260][261][262][263][264][265][266][267] defensins, 268 and thiopeptides.…”