In recent years, the increase of invasive fungal infections and the emergence of antifungal resistance stressed the need for new antifungal drugs. Peptides have shown to be good candidates for the development of alternative antimicrobial agents through high-throughput screening, and subsequent optimization according to a rational approach. This review presents a brief overview on antifungal natural peptides of different sources (animals, plants, micro-organisms), peptide fragments derived by proteolytic cleavage of precursor physiological proteins (cryptides), synthetic unnatural peptides and peptide derivatives. Antifungal peptides are schematically reported based on their structure, antifungal spectrum and reported effects. Natural or synthetic peptides and their modified derivatives may represent the basis for new compounds active against fungal infections.
Keywords: antifungal peptides; antimicrobial drugs; cryptides; infectious disease therapeutics; peptidomimetics.