Antimicrobial Peptides as a Strategy to Combat Fungal Biofilms

Title:Antimicrobial Peptides as a Strategy to Combat Fungal Biofilms

Volume: 17 Issue: 5

Author(s): Nicolas Delattin, Katrijn De Brucker, Kaat De Cremer, Bruno P.A. Cammue and Karin Thevissen

Affiliation:

Keywords: Antimicrobial Peptides, Antifungal, Antibiofilm, Coating, Peptide drugs, Candida spp., Cryptococcus spp.

Abstract: Invasive fungal infections caused by opportunistic fungal pathogens are associated with high mortality rates, mainly due to the occurrence of genotypic and/or phenotypic resistance. One of the causes of phenotypic resistance is the preferred growth of various fungal pathogens as biofilms, which are tolerant or resistant to most classes of antifungal agents. Moreover, increasing evidence points to biofilm formation as a general prerequisite for the development of systemic infections. Therefore, new antibiofilm agents are urgently needed to reduce the incidence of biofilm-associated infections. Nowadays, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are considered as valuable alternatives for or complements to the classical antifungal agents to combat fungal infections. Many review reports describe activity of AMPs against free-living planktonic fungal pathogens. In contrast, this review summarizes the antibiofilm properties of natural or synthetic AMPs against fungal biofilms and their potential to enhance the antibiofilm activity of existing antifungal agents.

Cite this article as:

Delattin Nicolas, Brucker De Katrijn, Cremer De Kaat, Cammue P.A. Bruno and Thevissen Karin, Antimicrobial Peptides as a Strategy to Combat Fungal Biofilms, Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry 2017; 17 (5) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1568026616666160713142228