title: Antimicrobial peptides: a new class of antimalarial drugs?
abstract: A range of antimicrobial peptides (AMP) exhibit activity on malaria parasites, Plasmodium spp., in their blood or mosquito stages, or both. These peptides include a diverse array of both natural and synthetic molecules varying greatly in size, charge, hydrophobicity, and secondary structure features. Along with an overview of relevant literature reports regarding AMP that display antiplasmodial activity, this review makes a few considerations about those molecules as a potential new class of antimalarial drugs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Centro de Investigação em Química, University of Porto Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Nuno
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vale
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Centro de Investigação em Química, University of Porto Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Luísa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Aguiar
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Centro de Investigação em Química, University of Porto Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gomes
keywords: AMP; Plasmodium spp.; amphipathic; antimalarial; antimicrobial; cationic; membranolytic; peptide