Multitalented Synthetic Antimicrobial Peptides and Their Antibacterial, Antifungal and Antiviral Mechanisms

Abstract

Despite the great strides in healthcare during the last century, some challenges still remained unanswered. The development of multi-drug resistant bacteria, the alarming growth of fungal infections, the emerging/re-emerging of viral diseases are yet a worldwide threat. Since the discovery of natural antimicrobial peptides able to broadly hit several pathogens, peptide-based therapeutics have been under the lenses of the researchers. This review aims to focus on synthetic peptides and elucidate their multifaceted mechanisms of action as antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal agents. Antimicrobial peptides generally affect highly preserved structures, e.g., the phospholipid membrane via pore formation or other constitutive targets like peptidoglycans in Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, and glucan in the fungal cell wall. Additionally, some peptides are particularly active on biofilm destabilizing the microbial communities. They can also act intracellularly, e.g., on protein biosynthesis or DNA replication. Their intracellular properties are extended upon viral infection since peptides can influence several steps along the virus life cycle starting from viral receptor-cell interaction to the budding. Besides their mode of action, improvements in manufacturing to increase their half-life and performances are also taken into consideration together with advantages and impairments in the clinical usage. Thus far, the progress of new synthetic peptide-based approaches is making them a promising tool to counteract emerging infections.

Keywords: antibacterial; antifungal; antimicrobial peptides; antiviral; peptide-based therapies; synthetic peptides.

Figure 1

AMPs broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. (a) Primarily, AMPs’action is based on their action on cytoplasmic membranes, i.e., perturbation or disruption. However, in presence of Gram-negative bacteria (A) AMPs have to firstly cross the outer phospholipidic membrane and secondly traverse the peptidoglycan layer before reaching the inner membrane. In Gram-positive bacteria (B) they navigate through the thick cell wall of peptidoglycan and in fungi (C), they encounter mannitol proteins, glucans and chitin prior to access to the cytoplasmic membrane. Once reached the phospholipidic bilayer, they induce perturbation via pore formation following either (D) (i) carpet-like, (ii) barrel-stave or (iii) or toroidal pore model depending on the peptide composition. (b) Besides pore formation, some AMPs bind some components and receptors on the extracellular side of the membrane, i.e., Toll-like receptors; others manage to enter the cytosol through direct penetration in vesicles or channels thus destabilizing the permeability and activating the inflammatory cytokines cascade. Intracellularly, they could also interfere with DNA or RNA leading to degradation and cell death. They may also affect mitochondrial activity or protein synthesis by targeting ribosome subunits or protein folding. In the case of bacterial cell wall, they can prevent elongation of peptidoglycan chains or hinder teichoic and teichuronic binding acids to amidases. Cell wall components inhibition will promote cell autolysis. In the extracellular space, AMPs can sequestrate LPS reducing the impact of endotoxins on the host’s immune response. In fungal cells, AMPs can intervene on glucan synthesis thus blocking the building pieces of their wall. Further inhibitory action on biofilm matrix impairs the quorum sensing and improves the susceptibility of the single pathogens in both bacterial and fungal communities.

Figure 2

AVPs targets in viral life cycle. Depending on the type of virus and on the mode of action of the peptides, AVPs can block viral entry by binding with specific cellular receptors or interaction with viral glycoproteins, which are involved in both entry and fusion process. They may also hinder the fusion via physicochemical interaction with hydrophobic membrane–protein interfaces. AVPs can act intracellularly as well by direct influence of viral nucleic acid synthesis or blocking viral protein expression. Others modulate the antiviral immune system of the host cell by up-regulating expression of interferons and cytokines.