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Review
. 2017 Aug 26;3(3):46.
doi: 10.3390/jof3030046.

Natural Antimicrobial Peptides as Inspiration for Design of a New Generation Antifungal Compounds

Affiliations
Review

Natural Antimicrobial Peptides as Inspiration for Design of a New Generation Antifungal Compounds

Małgorzata Bondaryk et al. J Fungi (Basel). .

Abstract

Invasive fungal infections are associated with high mortality rates, despite appropriate antifungal therapy. Limited therapeutic options, resistance development and the high mortality of invasive fungal infections brought about more concern triggering the search for new compounds capable of interfering with fungal viability and virulence. In this context, peptides gained attention as promising candidates for the antimycotics development. Variety of structural and functional characteristics identified for various natural antifungal peptides makes them excellent starting points for design novel drug candidates. Current review provides a brief overview of natural and synthetic antifungal peptides.

Keywords: Candida species; antifungal peptides; fungal pathogens.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Examples of diastereomeric structures of branched lipopeptides providing different distribution of cationic and lipophilic centers [214].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Rich in tryptophan residues dendrimeric peptide D186 [227].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Structure of cationic Trp-rich dendrimer 14 [228].

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