Title:Antimicrobial Peptides as a Strategy to Combat Fungal Biofilms
Volume: 17
Issue: 5
Author(s): Nicolas Delattin, Katrijn De Brucker, Kaat De Cremer, Bruno P.A. Cammue and Karin Thevissen
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Antimicrobial Peptides, Antifungal, Antibiofilm, Coating, Peptide drugs, Candida spp., Cryptococcus spp.
Abstract: Invasive fungal infections caused by opportunistic fungal pathogens are associated with
high mortality rates, mainly due to the occurrence of genotypic and/or phenotypic resistance. One of
the causes of phenotypic resistance is the preferred growth of various fungal pathogens as biofilms,
which are tolerant or resistant to most classes of antifungal agents. Moreover, increasing evidence
points to biofilm formation as a general prerequisite for the development of systemic infections.
Therefore, new antibiofilm agents are urgently needed to reduce the incidence of biofilm-associated
infections. Nowadays, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are considered as valuable alternatives for or
complements to the classical antifungal agents to combat fungal infections. Many review reports describe
activity of AMPs against free-living planktonic fungal pathogens. In contrast, this review summarizes
the antibiofilm properties of natural or synthetic AMPs against fungal biofilms and their potential
to enhance the antibiofilm activity of existing antifungal agents.
