Therapeutic Potential of Antimicrobial Peptides

A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Antimicrobial Agents and Resistance".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 1519

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Integrative Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, 1201 W University Dr, Edinburg, TX 78539, USA
Interests: antibiotic resistance; antimicrobial peptides; peptide design

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Infectious diseases represent one of the most pressing global public health challenges and are getting worse nowadays due to the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) microorganisms. These rapidly emerging resistant micropathogens threaten to make our current antibiotics ineffective, leading to higher morbidity and mortality rates. According to the WHO, the pipeline of new antibiotics is stagnant and the number of new drugs in clinical trials has decreased, which has led to an unmet need for new therapeutical potential antimicrobial agents.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are well known as host-innate defense short peptides. These important biologically active molecules play a broad range of roles in a wide variety of life forms from microorganisms to humans. Because of their advantages over traditional antibiotics and their position as promising alternatives, AMPs have become an emerging category of therapeutic agents that have attracted growing interest in recent years. Many efforts are being made to develop new AMPs with therapeutical potential, including new AMP discovery, identification, screening, and rational design by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), as well as new functional mechanisms of naturally occurring AMPs leading to potentially therapeutic treatment against pathogenic microorganisms. Moreover, there are still some concerns about their stability, and there is limited research in clinical trials.

This Special Issue welcomes researchers to submit their original studies (e.g., new discoveries and advances in AMP research in a variety of areas), comprehensive reviews, and communications related to the aforementioned topics. We believe these can advance our understanding of AMPs’ therapeutical potential, leading to improved strategies for combating antibiotic resistance and infectious diseases caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens.

Dr. Yonghong Zhang
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • infectious disease
  • antibiotic resistance
  • antimicrobial peptides
  • peptide design
  • AMP identification
  • mode of action
  • therapeutic potential

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 2107 KiB  
Article
Inhibitory Effect of Antimicrobial Peptides Bac7(17), PAsmr5-17 and PAβN on Bacterial Growth and Biofilm Formation of Multidrug-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii
by Johanna Rühl-Teichner, Daniela Müller, Ivonne Stamm, Stephan Göttig, Ursula Leidner, Torsten Semmler and Christa Ewers
Microorganisms 2025, 13(3), 639; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms13030639 - 11 Mar 2025
Viewed by 543
Abstract
Acinetobacter (A.) baumannii is a major nosocomial pathogen in human and veterinary medicine. The emergence of certain international clones (ICs), often with multidrug-resistant (MDR) phenotypes and biofilm formation (BF), facilitates its spread in clinical environments. The global rise in antimicrobial resistance [...] Read more.
Acinetobacter (A.) baumannii is a major nosocomial pathogen in human and veterinary medicine. The emergence of certain international clones (ICs), often with multidrug-resistant (MDR) phenotypes and biofilm formation (BF), facilitates its spread in clinical environments. The global rise in antimicrobial resistance demands alternative treatment strategies, such as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). In this study, 45 human and companion animal MDR-A. baumannii isolates, belonging to the globally spread IC1, IC2 and IC7, were tested for antimicrobial resistance and biofilm-associated genes (BAGs) and their capacity for BF. Of these, 13 were used to test the inhibitory effect of AMPs on bacterial growth (BG) and BF through the application of a crystal violet assay. The two novel AMP variants Bac7(17) (target cell inactivation) and Pasmr5-17 (efflux pump inhibition) and the well-known AMP phenylalanine-arginine-β-naphthylamide (PAβN) were tested at concentrations of 1.95 to 1000 µg/mL. Based on whole-genome sequence data, identical patterns of BAGs were detected within the same IC. AMPs inhibited BG and BF in a dose-dependent manner. Bac7(17) and PAsmr5-17 were highly effective against BG, with growth inhibition (GI) of >99% (62.5 and 125 µg/mL, respectively). PAβN achieved only 95.7% GI at 1000 µg/mL. Similar results were obtained for BF. Differences between the ICs were found for both GI and BF when influenced by AMPs. PAsmr5-17 had hardly any inhibitory effect on the BF of IC1 isolates, but for IC2 and IC7 isolates, 31.25 µg/mL was sufficient. Our data show that the susceptibility of animal MDR-A. baumannii to AMPs most likely resembles that of human isolates, depending on their assignment to a particular IC. Even low concentrations of AMPs had a significant effect on BG. Therefore, AMPs represent a promising alternative in the treatment of MDR-A. baumannii, either as the sole therapy or in combination with antibiotics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Therapeutic Potential of Antimicrobial Peptides)
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22 pages, 6216 KiB  
Article
Genomic Insights and Antimicrobial Potential of Newly Streptomyces cavourensis Isolated from a Ramsar Wetland Ecosystem
by Mabrouka Benhadj, Taha Menasria, Nawel Zaatout and Stéphane Ranque
Microorganisms 2025, 13(3), 576; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms13030576 - 3 Mar 2025
Viewed by 706
Abstract
The growing threat of antimicrobial resistance underscores the urgent need to identify new bioactive compounds. In this study, a Streptomyces strain, ACT158, was isolated from a Ramsar wetland ecosystem and found to exhibit broad-spectrum effects against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, as well as [...] Read more.
The growing threat of antimicrobial resistance underscores the urgent need to identify new bioactive compounds. In this study, a Streptomyces strain, ACT158, was isolated from a Ramsar wetland ecosystem and found to exhibit broad-spectrum effects against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, as well as fungal pathogens. The active strain was characterized as S. cavourensis according to its morphology, phylogenetic analysis, average nucleotide identity (ANI), and digital DNA–DNA hybridization (dDDH). Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and annotation revealed a genome size of 6.86 Mb with 5122 coding sequences linked to carbohydrate metabolism, secondary metabolite biosynthesis, and stress responses. Genome mining through antiSMASH revealed 32 biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), including those encoding polyketides, nonribosomal peptides, and terpenes, many of which showed low similarity to known clusters. Comparative genomic analysis, showing high genomic synteny with closely related strains. Unique genomic features of ACT158 included additional BGCs and distinct genes associated with biosynthesis pathways and stress adaptation. These findings highlight the strain’s potential as a rich source of bioactive compounds and provide insights into its genomic basis for antimicrobial production and its ecological and biotechnological significance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Therapeutic Potential of Antimicrobial Peptides)
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