Antimicrobial Peptides: An Update on Classifications and Databases

Overview

Journal Int J Mol Sci

Publisher MDPI

Specialties Biochemistry
Chemistry
Molecular Biology

Date 2021 Nov 13

PMID 34769122

Citations 92

Authors

Ahmer Bin Hafeez

Xukai Jiang

Phillip J Bergen

Yan Zhu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are distributed across all kingdoms of life and are an indispensable component of host defenses. They consist of predominantly short cationic peptides with a wide variety of structures and targets. Given the ever-emerging resistance of various pathogens to existing antimicrobial therapies, AMPs have recently attracted extensive interest as potential therapeutic agents. As the discovery of new AMPs has increased, many databases specializing in AMPs have been developed to collect both fundamental and pharmacological information. In this review, we summarize the sources, structures, modes of action, and classifications of AMPs. Additionally, we examine current AMP databases, compare valuable computational tools used to predict antimicrobial activity and mechanisms of action, and highlight new machine learning approaches that can be employed to improve AMP activity to combat global antimicrobial resistance.

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