Work

Bacterial strategies of resistance to antimicrobial peptides

Year: 2016

Type: review

Abstract: Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a key component of the host's innate immune system, targeting invasive and colonizing bacteria. For successful survival and colonization of the host, bacteria have a series of mechanisms to interfere with AMP activity, and AMP resistance is intimately connected with the virulence potential of bacterial pathogens. In particular, because AMPs are considered as potential novel antimicrobial drugs, it is vital to understand bacterial AMP resistance mechanisms. This review gives a comparative overview of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strategies of resistance to various AMPs, such as repulsion or sequestration by bacterial surface structures, alteration of membrane charge or fluidity, degradation and removal by efflux pumps.This article is part of the themed issue 'Evolutionary ecology of arthropod antimicrobial peptides'.

Source: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0292

Authors: Hwang-Soo Joo, Chih-Iung Fu, Michael Otto

Institutions: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Language: English

Topic: Antimicrobial Peptides and Activities

Subfield: Microbiology

Field: Immunology and Microbiology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Awards: G1361833297, Staphylococcal pathogenesis