[Antimicrobial peptides: a new way to treat bacterial infections].

The therapy of bacterial infections is currently a difficult problem of the contemporary medicine, mainly due to the increasing spread of resistance to conventional antibiotics and to the appearance of multi-resistant bacterial strains. Although the gene-encoded antimicrobial peptides were described for a while their intensive research and study of their possible clinical applications has started only in the recent years. These antimicrobial peptides appear to form part of the most ancient defense mechanisms of the phylogenesis by exerting cytotoxic (mainly membrane damaging) effects against many bacteria. In this review the author attempts to make a brief synopsis--from a medical point of view--of the most important antimicrobial peptides and their possible clinical applications.