Potential Application of Antimicrobial Peptides in the Treatment of Bacterial Biofilm Infections

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of persistent biofilm infections, such as wound infections, chronic lung infections or medical device- related infections, which usually tolerate conventional antibiotic treatment, calls for the development of new therapeutic strategies. To date, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are considered as promising agents in the fight against multidrug-resistant bacterial biofilm infections, since many of them have been shown to prevent biofilm formation or even kill preexisting, mature biofilms of several Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria in addition to their bactericidal actions to planktonic cells. In this mini-review, we summarize in vitro and in vivo antibiofilm properties of natural and synthetic cationic AMPs against clinically relevant bacterial pathogens. Furthermore, the benefits and challenges in the use of AMPs for the medical treatment of bacterial biofilm infections are discussed.

Antimicrobial peptides as natural bio-preservative to enhance the shelf-life of food

“…Mammalian leukocyte is rich source of antimicrobial peptides which helps in preventing the bacterial infection. These antimicrobial peptides are cationic in nature (Strempel et al 2015). Pleurocidin and protamine are two types of antimicrobial peptides isolated from fish which showed activity against L. monocytogens and other food-spoilage organisms and hence, could be used in food preservation.…”

“…More than 1000 cationic peptides are known, which exhibit positive charge and hence, termed as cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAPs) (Strempel et al 2015). …”

“…For understanding the mechanism of antimicrobial peptides, various models have been proposed which occur when peptides attach the cell membrane of bacteria and it completely disrupts the cell membrane integrity (Berglund et al 2015). Carpet model, toroidal pore model, brave straw model and aggregate model are well-studied models of antimicrobial peptides (Strempel et al 2015;Zhao et al 2015).…”

“…Usually, they are composed of 10-50 amino-acid residues arranged in different groups depending upon the amino acid composition, size and conformation (Barany and Merrifield 1980;Strempel et al 2015). In general, when an antimicrobial peptide is folded in certain membrane or membrane-like environment, one part of the antimicrobial peptide is positively charged, which consist of lysine and arginine residues, while the other side contains a proportion of hydrophobic residues (Bagley 2014).…”

Design and membrane-disruption mechanism of charge-enriched AMPs exhibiting cell selectivity, high-salt resistance, and anti-biofilm properties

“…Currently used antibiotics do not affect biofilm formation, and their misuse and abuse can lead to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains (Strempel et al 2015), which can result in more serious illness (Lopez et al 2006). Such antibiotic-resistant strains are problematic worldwide, and there is much effort ongoing to develop new agents, including AMPs, that can kill resistant strains.…”