Title:Models of In-Vivo Bacterial Infections for the Development of Antimicrobial Peptide-based Drugs
Volume: 17
Issue: 5
Author(s): Jlenia Brunetti, Chiara Falciani, Luisa Bracci and Alessandro Pini
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Antimicrobial peptides, In vivo models, Infection, Superbugs.
Abstract: The increasing frequency of multi-resistant Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and
a long-term decreasing trend in the development of new antimicrobial molecules prompts research for
new anti-infective agents with new modes of action.
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are considered an interesting class of antibacterial molecules. Many
new AMPs have been discovered and some are being evaluated for the development of new antibacterial
therapeutics. Since the development of new antibacterial drugs has been neglected for decades,
we are now faced with extreme medical need combined with a lack of technical experimental progress
in setting up efficient models of antibacterial activity in animals. Here we review experiments with
AMPs in animal models of sepsis, pneumonia and skin infection caused by bacteria. Animal models
of infection have been of enormous predictive value in antibacterial drug discovery, both for elucidating
AMP efficacy in the treatment of experimentally induced infection and for comparing the effectiveness
of two or more antibiotics.
