Design and Assessment of Anti-Biofilm Peptides: Steps Toward Clinical Application

• Published in: Journal of innate immunity Vol. 11; no. 3; pp. 193 - 204
• Main Authors: Dostert, Melanie, Belanger, Corrie R., Hancock, Robert E.W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel, Switzerland S. Karger AG 01-04-2019
• Subjects: Anti-Bacterial Agents - pharmacology; Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides - pharmacology; Biofilms - drug effects; Cathelicidins; Drug Compounding; Drug Discovery; Humans; Oligopeptides - pharmacology; Peptides - pharmacology; Peptides - therapeutic use; Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship; Review; Review Article; Anti-biofilm peptides; Biofilm infections; Physiologically relevant conditions
• ISSN: 1662-811X; 1662-8128; 1662-8128
• DOI: 10.1159/000491497

Highly antibiotic resistant, microbial communities, referred to as biofilms, cause various life-threatening infections in humans. At least two-thirds of all clinical infections are biofilm associated, and antibiotic therapy regularly fails to cure patients. Anti-biofilm peptides represent a promising approach to treat these infections by targeting biofilm-specific characteristics such as highly conserved regulatory mechanisms. They are being considered for clinical application and we discuss here key factors in discovery, design, and application, particularly the implementation of host-mimicking conditions, that are required to enable the successful advancement of potent anti-biofilm peptides from the bench to the clinic.