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Insect Cecropins, Antimicrobial Peptides with Potential Therapeutic Applications

The alarming escalation of infectious diseases resistant to conventional antibiotics requires urgent global actions, including the development of new therapeutics. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) represent potential alternatives in the treatment of multi-drug resistant (MDR) infections. Here, we focus...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Brady, Daniel, Grapputo, Alessandro, Romoli, Ottavia, Sandrelli, Federica
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6929098/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31766730
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms20235862
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author Brady, Daniel
Grapputo, Alessandro
Romoli, Ottavia
Sandrelli, Federica
author_facet Brady, Daniel
Grapputo, Alessandro
Romoli, Ottavia
Sandrelli, Federica
author_sort Brady, Daniel
collection PubMed
description The alarming escalation of infectious diseases resistant to conventional antibiotics requires urgent global actions, including the development of new therapeutics. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) represent potential alternatives in the treatment of multi-drug resistant (MDR) infections. Here, we focus on Cecropins (Cecs), a group of naturally occurring AMPs in insects, and on synthetic Cec-analogs. We describe their action mechanisms and antimicrobial activity against MDR bacteria and other pathogens. We report several data suggesting that Cec and Cec-analog peptides are promising antibacterial therapeutic candidates, including their low toxicity against mammalian cells, and anti-inflammatory activity. We highlight limitations linked to the use of peptides as therapeutics and discuss methods overcoming these constraints, particularly regarding the introduction of nanotechnologies. New formulations based on natural Cecs would allow the development of drugs active against Gram-negative bacteria, and those based on Cec-analogs would give rise to therapeutics effective against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens. Cecs and Cec-analogs might be also employed to coat biomaterials for medical devices as an approach to prevent biomaterial-associated infections. The cost of large-scale production is discussed in comparison with the economic and social burden resulting from the progressive diffusion of MDR infectious diseases.
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spelling pubmed-69290982019-12-26 Insect Cecropins, Antimicrobial Peptides with Potential Therapeutic Applications Brady, Daniel Grapputo, Alessandro Romoli, Ottavia Sandrelli, Federica Int J Mol Sci Review The alarming escalation of infectious diseases resistant to conventional antibiotics requires urgent global actions, including the development of new therapeutics. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) represent potential alternatives in the treatment of multi-drug resistant (MDR) infections. Here, we focus on Cecropins (Cecs), a group of naturally occurring AMPs in insects, and on synthetic Cec-analogs. We describe their action mechanisms and antimicrobial activity against MDR bacteria and other pathogens. We report several data suggesting that Cec and Cec-analog peptides are promising antibacterial therapeutic candidates, including their low toxicity against mammalian cells, and anti-inflammatory activity. We highlight limitations linked to the use of peptides as therapeutics and discuss methods overcoming these constraints, particularly regarding the introduction of nanotechnologies. New formulations based on natural Cecs would allow the development of drugs active against Gram-negative bacteria, and those based on Cec-analogs would give rise to therapeutics effective against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens. Cecs and Cec-analogs might be also employed to coat biomaterials for medical devices as an approach to prevent biomaterial-associated infections. The cost of large-scale production is discussed in comparison with the economic and social burden resulting from the progressive diffusion of MDR infectious diseases. MDPI 2019-11-22 /pmc/articles/PMC6929098/ /pubmed/31766730 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms20235862 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Brady, Daniel
Grapputo, Alessandro
Romoli, Ottavia
Sandrelli, Federica
Insect Cecropins, Antimicrobial Peptides with Potential Therapeutic Applications
title Insect Cecropins, Antimicrobial Peptides with Potential Therapeutic Applications
title_full Insect Cecropins, Antimicrobial Peptides with Potential Therapeutic Applications
title_fullStr Insect Cecropins, Antimicrobial Peptides with Potential Therapeutic Applications
title_full_unstemmed Insect Cecropins, Antimicrobial Peptides with Potential Therapeutic Applications
title_short Insect Cecropins, Antimicrobial Peptides with Potential Therapeutic Applications
title_sort insect cecropins, antimicrobial peptides with potential therapeutic applications
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6929098/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31766730
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms20235862
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