Pandidan Sara, Mechler Adam
La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.
Biophys Rep. 2021 Jun 30;7(3):173-184. doi: 10.52601/bpr.2021.200037.
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are integral components of the innate immune defence system of all complex organisms including plants, insects, and mammals. They have wide range of antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and even anticancer activities, therefore AMPs are attractive candidates for developing novel therapeutic approaches. Cationic α-helical membrane disrupting peptides are perhaps the most widely studied subclass of AMPs due to their common fundamental characteristics that allow for detailed structure-function analysis and therefore offer a promising solution to the threat of multidrug resistant strains of bacteria. The majority of the studies of AMP activity focused on the biological and biophysical aspects of membrane disruption; the understanding of the molecular mechanism of action from the physicochemical point of view forms a relatively small subfield. This review will provide an overview of these works, focusing on the empirical and thermodynamic models of AMP action.
抗菌肽（AMPs）是包括植物、昆虫和哺乳动物在内的所有复杂生物体固有免疫防御系统的组成部分。它们具有广泛的抗菌、抗真菌、抗病毒甚至抗癌活性，因此抗菌肽是开发新型治疗方法的有吸引力的候选物。阳离子α-螺旋膜破坏肽可能是研究最广泛的抗菌肽亚类，因为它们具有共同的基本特征，便于进行详细的结构-功能分析，从而为多药耐药菌株的威胁提供了一个有前景的解决方案。大多数关于抗菌肽活性的研究集中在膜破坏的生物学和生物物理方面；从物理化学角度对抗菌肽作用分子机制的理解构成了一个相对较小的子领域。本综述将概述这些工作，重点关注抗菌肽作用的经验模型和热力学模型。
