Due to the increasing emergence of drug-resistant pathogenic microorganisms, there is a world-wide quest to develop new-generation antibiotics. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are small peptides with a broad spectrum of antibiotic activities against bacteria, fungi, protozoa, viruses and sometimes exhibit cytotoxic activity toward cancer cells. As a part of the native host defense system, most AMPs target the membrane integrity of the microorganism, leading to cell death by lysis. These membrane lytic effects are often toxic to mammalian cells and restrict their systemic application. However, AMPs containing predominantly either tryptophan or proline can kill microorganisms by targeting intracellular pathways and are therefore a promising source of next-generation antibiotics. A minimum length of six amino acids is required for high antimicrobial activity in tryptophan-rich AMPs and the position of these residues also affects their antimicrobial activity. The aromatic side chain of tryptophan is able to rapidly form hydrogen bonds with membrane bilayer components. Proline-rich AMPs interact with the 70S ribosome and disrupt protein synthesis. In addition, they can also target the heat shock protein in target pathogens, and consequently lead to protein misfolding. In this review, we will focus on describing the structures, sources, and mechanisms of action of the aforementioned AMPs.
Keywords: antimicrobial peptide; membrane lysis; proline-rich antimicrobial peptides; synthetic combinatorial libraries; tryptophan-rich antimicrobial peptides.