title: Therapeutic potential of HDPs as immunomodulatory agents.
abstract: One of the most significant advances in medical history is the discovery and development of antibiotics, which in the middle of last century was flourishing and appeared to be the ultimate solution to the treatment of life-threatening human bacterial diseases. However, lately there has been a huge decline in the rate of discovery of new antimicrobial intervention strategies in parallel with an increasing incidence of multidrug-resistant pathogens; if these circumstances do not change we will continue to approach the end of the antibiotic era. Facing this dark future, scientists are considering new strategies for intervention tailored around the appropriate (selective) stimulation of the host's immune system, and particularly rapid acting innate immunity, as an alternative to direct targeting of microbial pathogens. One recent player in such an immunomodulatory strategy is the naturally occurring host defence peptides (HDP) and their synthetic innate defence regulator (IDR) analogues. In this chapter, we will discuss the potential therapeutic use of HDPs and IDRs as immunomodulatory agents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Science, Systems, and Models, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark.
authors.forename: Håvard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jenssen
authors.forename: Robert E W
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Hancock
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D007155:Immunologic Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data
chemical_list: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D007155:Immunologic Factors