Antibiotic peptides from higher eukaryotes: biology and applications.
Gene-encoded antibiotic peptides are increasingly being recognized as effector molecules of host defense in plants and animals. Studies of antimicrobial peptides are providing new insights into the dynamic interactions between microbes and their hosts, and are generating new paradigms for the pathogenesis and treatment of diseases. Because antimicrobial peptides of higher eukaryotes differ structurally from conventional antibiotics produced by bacteria and fungi, they offer novel templates for pharmaceutical compounds that could be effective against increasingly resistant microbes.
Ganz
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Dept of Medicine and the Will Rogers Institute for Pulmonary Research, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1690, USA. tganz@ucla.edu
Lehrer
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RI
D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D005658:Fungi / Q000187:drug effects; D010452:Peptide Biosynthesis; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D014780:Viruses / Q000187:drug effects
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D010455:Peptides