Abstract
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are regarded as a new generation of antibiotics. Besides antimicrobial activity, AMPs also have antibiofilm, immune-regulatory, and other activities. Exploring the mechanism of action of AMPs may help in the modification and development of AMPs. Many studies were conducted on the mechanism of AMPs. The present review mainly summarizes the research status on the antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antibiofilm properties of AMPs. This study not only describes the mechanism of cell wall action and membrane-targeting action but also includes the transmembrane mechanism of intracellular action and intracellular action targets. It also discusses the dual mechanism of action reported by a large number of investigations. Antibiofilm and anti-inflammatory mechanisms were described based on the formation of biofilms and inflammation. This study aims to provide a comprehensive review of the multiple activities and coordination of AMPs in vivo, and to fully understand AMPs to realize their therapeutic prospect.
Highlights
Since their discovery, antibiotics have been widely used in medicine, food, agriculture, and other fields [1]
Peptidoglycan is the main component of the bacterial cell wall, and lipid II is an important part of peptidoglycan synthesis [44]
For the antimicrobial mechanism of Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), the early research mainly focused on the destruction of the bacterial membrane
Summary
Antibiotics have been widely used in medicine, food, agriculture, and other fields [1]. AMPs exist widely in nature and are obtained from bacteria, plants, insects, fish, birds, and other animals [16,17,18] They are important effectors in the innate immune system and the first line of defense to protect against pathogen infection [19,20,21]. They have no highly conserved sequence, but most of them are short, amphiphilic, and highly cationic molecules [5,22] They have strong antimicrobial activity against a variety of bacteria, fungi, and viruses [23,24]. They have the advantages of low toxicity to eukaryotic cells, strong thermal stability, high solubility, low molecular weight, and lack of resistance [25]. The antimicrobial, antibiofilm, and anti-inflammatory mechanisms of AMPs were reviewed
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