Galdiero Emilia, Lombardi Lucia, Falanga Annarita, Libralato Giovanni, Guida Marco, Carotenuto Rosa
Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Via Cinthia, 80126 Naples, Italy.
Department of Pharmacy, University of Naples Federico II, Via Mezzocannone 16, 80134 Naples, Italy.
Pharmaceutics. 2019 Jul 10;11(7):322. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics11070322.
The problem of drug resistance is very worrying and ever increasing. Resistance is due not only to the reckless use of antibiotics but also to the fact that pathogens are able to adapt to different conditions and develop self-defense mechanisms such as living in biofilms; altogether these issues make the search for alternative drugs a real challenge. Antimicrobial peptides appear as promising alternatives but they have disadvantages that do not make them easily applicable in the medical field; thus many researches look for solutions to overcome the disadvantages and ensure that the advantages can be exploited. This review describes the biofilm characteristics and identifies the key features that antimicrobial peptides should have. Recalcitrant bacterial infections caused by the most obstinate bacterial species should be treated with a strategy to combine conventional peptides functionalized with nano-tools. This approach could effectively disrupt high density infections caused by biofilms. Moreover, the importance of using in vivo non mammalian models for biofilm studies is described. In particular, here we analyze the use of amphibians as a model to substitute the rodent model.
耐药性问题令人十分担忧且日益严重。耐药性不仅归因于对抗生素的滥用，还在于病原体能够适应不同环境并形成诸如生活在生物膜中等自我防御机制；总之，这些问题使得寻找替代药物成为一项真正的挑战。抗菌肽似乎是很有前景的替代物，但它们存在一些缺点，这使得它们难以在医学领域轻易应用；因此，许多研究致力于寻找克服这些缺点的解决方案，以确保能够利用其优势。本综述描述了生物膜的特征，并确定了抗菌肽应具备的关键特性。由最顽固的细菌种类引起的顽固性细菌感染，应采用将传统肽与纳米工具功能化相结合的策略进行治疗。这种方法可以有效破坏由生物膜引起的高密度感染。此外，还描述了使用体内非哺乳动物模型进行生物膜研究的重要性。特别是，我们在此分析了使用两栖动物作为替代啮齿动物模型的模型。
