Therapeutic Potential and Application Prospects of Antimicrobial Peptides in the Era of Global Spread of Antibiotic Resistance

Abstract

In the era of the growing global threat of antibiotic resistance, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are considered as new generation drugs for treatment of various infectious diseases. In this review, AMPs are seen as an alternative to traditional antibiotics, many of which have already lost or are gradually reducing their effectiveness against a number of critically important pathogenic microorganisms. Recent outbreaks of secondary infections during the COVID-19 pandemic have increased the interest in AMPs due to an acute shortage of effective agents against bacterial and fungal infections. The review summarized current data on clinical studies of AMPs, assembled a list of developed drugs based on AMPs at various stages of clinical trials, highlighted the urgency of study of new AMPs, and systematized the most relevant clinical data and application of AMPs.