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Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), also called host defense peptides (HDPs), which commonly content 5-40 amino acids, are natural antibiotics produced by various organisms.
The characteristics of antimicrobial peptides
The first AMP was found by Dubos when extracted an antimicrobial agent from a soil bacillus strain in 1939. This extract was demonstrated to protect mice from pneumococci infection. Since then nearly 5,000 AMPs have been found or synthesized. They usually have the common characteristics: small peptide (30–60 aa), strong cationic (pI 8.9–10.7), heat-stable (100 ℃, 15 min), no drug fastness and no effect on eukaryotic cell. Almost all of them have a positively charged surface. The selective interaction with the membrane of microorganisms generally depends on the cationic nature of AMPs. According to their charge they can be divided into cationic peptides and non-cationic peptides.
