title: Antimicrobial peptides: cooperative approaches to protection.
abstract: Reports of cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAPs) have become standard fare in research literature. But with several hundred peptides described to date, the investigator who tries to navigate the proposed models of their activity is only treated to a generous serving of incongruencies. Rather than acting in isolation as antimicrobial molecules, CAPs also may synergize with other molecules of innate immunity and modulate both innate and adaptive immune systems, thus providing a link between the various mechanisms that result in host protection.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Marine Biosciences, 1411 Oxford Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3H 3Z1.
authors.forename: Aleksander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Patrzykat
authors.forename: Susan E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Douglas
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D005399:Fishes / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice
chemical_list: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides