摘要
Virtually all life forms express short antimicrobial cationic peptides as an important component of their innate immune defenses. They serve as endogenous antibiotics that are able to rapidly kill an unusually broad range of bacteria, fungi and viruses. Consequently, considerable efforts have been expended to exploit the therapeutic potential of these antimicrobial peptides. Within the last couple of years, it has become increasingly clear that many of these peptides, in addition to their direct antimicrobial activity, also have a wide range of functions in modulating both innate and adaptive immunity. For one class of antimicrobial peptides, such as the human defensins, their primary role may even be as immunomodulators. These properties potentially provide entirely new therapeutic approaches to anti-infective therapy.
摘要译文
几乎所有的生命形式都将短抗菌阳离子肽作为其先天免疫防御的重要组成部分。它们可以作为内源性的抗生素，能够迅速杀死异常广泛的细菌，真菌和病毒。因此，已经花费了相当大的努力来开发这些抗微生物肽的治疗潜力。在过去几年中，越来越清楚的是，除了它们的直接抗微生物活性之外，这些肽中的许多还在调节先天免疫和适应性免疫中具有广泛的功能。对于一类抗菌肽，如人防御素，它们的主要作用甚至可能是免疫调节剂。这些特性可能为抗感染治疗提供全新的治疗方法。
Thomas Kruse&EMail:tkru@novozymes.com[1];Hans-Henrik Kristensen&EMail:hahk@novozymes.com[1]. Using antimicrobial host defense peptides as anti-infective and immunomodulatory agents[J]. Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 2008,6(6): 887-895