Design and Development of Broadspectrum Antimicrobial Peptides as Topical Agent

Abstract

The use of Antibiotics as a magic bullet against various life threatening infections has newlineprofound impact from the development of first antibiotic penicillin1-3. over the period of time the newlinehigh diversity of antibiotics molecules has been discovered from different sources. However, the newlineemergence of multi-drug resistance bacteria is a serious threat to public health. In recent past newlinebiologically active antimicrobial peptides with multidimensional properties have been emerged newlinefrom different sources such as plant, animal, mammala and microorganisms. These peptides are newlinebeing focused since the last two decades due to their beneficial functionalities, namely newlineantioxidative, antihypertensive, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and antimicrobial newlineactivity. The risk of antibiotic resistance is a major health issue 4 and hence researchers are paying newlinemore attention to Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs). AMPs are short peptides having less than 50 newlineamino acid, positive net charge and hydrophobic nature. newlineOne of the driving forces behind the research into AMPs could be their broad-spectrum newlineantimicrobial activity and low risk of resistance development. A combination of a well-defined newlinecationic region together with an imperfect hydrophobic surface area frequently seems to result in newlinebroad spectrum activity.5 The cationic nature of AMPs selectively interacts with the negatively newlinecharged surfaces of microbial membranes and hydrophobic portions are responsible for the newlineinteraction with hydrophobic components of the membrane. The peptide- lipid specific interactions newlinecause the peptide translocation across the membrane (figure 1), leading to the displacement of lipid. newline6,7 Compared to this, mammalian surfaces differ in their composition, containing zwitterionic newlinephospholipids, sphingomyelin and cholesterol, which allows AMPs to selectively target microbial newlinemembranes.8 Transient pore formation due to AMP-membrane interaction, might increase newlinemembrane permeability to water, cations and anions, leading ultimately to loss of cytoplasmic newlinemembrane integrity