title: New trends in peptide-based anti-biofilm strategies: a review of recent achievements and bioinformatic approaches.
abstract: Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have a broad spectrum of activity and unspecific mechanisms of action. Therefore, they are seen as valid alternatives to overcome clinically relevant biofilms and reduce the chance of acquired resistance. This paper reviews AMPs and anti-biofilm AMP-based strategies and discusses ongoing and future work. Recent studies report successful AMP-based prophylactic and therapeutic strategies, several databases catalogue AMP information and analysis tools, and novel bioinformatics tools are supporting AMP discovery and design. However, most AMP studies are performed with planktonic cultures, and most studies on sessile cells test AMPs on growing rather than mature biofilms. Promising preliminary synergistic studies have to be consubstantiated and the study of functionalized coatings with AMPs must be further explored. Standardized operating protocols, to enforce the repeatability and reproducibility of AMP anti-biofilm tests, and automated means of screening and processing the ever-expanding literature are still missing.
authors.affiliation: IBB - Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal.
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jorge
authors.forename: Anália
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lourenço
authors.forename: Maria Olívia
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Pereira
mesh_terms: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena / Q000187:drug effects*; D018441:Biofilms / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000254:growth & development*; D019295:Computational Biology; D019736:Prostheses and Implants / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides