title: Neuropeptide-derived antimicrobial peptides from invertebrates for biomedical applications.
abstract: Since the beginning of the 20th century, important medicinal progress has led medical doctors to think that the end of devastating epidemics has arrived. In 1930, the discovery of sulfamides and penicillin opened a wide area of applications able to fight against bacterial infections. However, almost all antibiotics were baffled by the great ability to adaptation of bacteria (1) and the emergence of new bacterial agents, discovered with up-dated technologies. The living world is perpetually in co-evolution and since more than 3 billion years, bacteria have developed resistance mechanisms to overcome external aggressions. Thus, in the middle of the 80th century, multi-resistant bacteria appeared and disseminated out from hospitals. In this context, researches have been developed in order to find new antimicrobial substances to destroy such new types of bacteria. Thus, several groups have turned their focus on invertebrates, which co-evoluad with human and have appeared on the planet since a long time. Evidence of new families of antimicrobial substances isolated from invertebrates different to the classical cationic peptide family i.e. dipeptides and anionic peptides been given. Moreover, these molecules are also present in human and may serve in the innate immune response as an important survival strategy.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Neuroimmunologie des Annélides, UMR CNRS 8017, IFR18, SN3, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, 59650 Villeneuve d'ascq, France. michel.salzet@univ-lille1.fr
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salzet
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D007814:Larva / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D007865:Leeches / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D009479:Neuropeptides; D010455:Peptides