Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Università Federico II, 80126 Naples, Italy.
Istituto Nazionale Biostrutture e Biosistemi (INBB), 00136 Rome, Italy.
Biomolecules. 2020 Apr 23;10(4):652. doi: 10.3390/biom10040652.
The increasing onset of multidrug-resistant bacteria has propelled microbiology research towards antimicrobial peptides as new possible antibiotics from natural sources. Antimicrobial peptides are short peptides endowed with a broad range of activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and are less prone to trigger resistance. Besides their activity against planktonic bacteria, many antimicrobial peptides also show antibiofilm activity. Biofilms are ubiquitous in nature, having the ability to adhere to virtually any surface, either biotic or abiotic, including medical devices, causing chronic infections that are difficult to eradicate. The biofilm matrix protects bacteria from hostile environments, thus contributing to the bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents. Biofilms are very difficult to treat, with options restricted to the use of large doses of antibiotics or the removal of the infected device. Antimicrobial peptides could represent good candidates to develop new antibiofilm drugs as they can act at different stages of biofilm formation, on disparate molecular targets and with various mechanisms of action. These include inhibition of biofilm formation and adhesion, downregulation of quorum sensing factors, and disruption of the pre-formed biofilm. This review focuses on the proprieties of antimicrobial and antibiofilm peptides, with a particular emphasis on their mechanism of action, reporting several examples of peptides that over time have been shown to have activity against biofilm.
随着多药耐药菌的不断出现，微生物学研究已经转向从天然来源寻找新的可能的抗生素，即抗菌肽。抗菌肽是一类具有广谱活性的短肽，既能抗革兰氏阳性菌，也能抗革兰氏阴性菌，而且不易引发耐药性。除了对浮游细菌的活性外，许多抗菌肽还具有抗生物膜活性。生物膜在自然界中无处不在，具有附着在几乎任何表面的能力，包括生物或非生物表面，如医疗器械，导致难以根除的慢性感染。生物膜基质保护细菌免受恶劣环境的影响，从而导致细菌对抗生素的耐药性。生物膜非常难以治疗，治疗方法仅限于使用大剂量的抗生素或去除受感染的设备。抗菌肽可能是开发新的抗生物膜药物的良好候选物，因为它们可以在生物膜形成的不同阶段、针对不同的分子靶点和通过不同的作用机制发挥作用。这些机制包括抑制生物膜的形成和附着、下调群体感应因子，以及破坏已形成的生物膜。本文综述了抗菌肽和抗生物膜肽的特性，特别强调了它们的作用机制，并报告了一些随着时间的推移被证明对生物膜具有活性的肽的例子。
