Endogenous Cationic Peptides: An alternative to antibiotics

Endogenous peptide antibiotics are a large group of low molecular weight natural compounds that have been isolated from almost all living species of both animal and plant kingdom during the past two decades. Among them, cationic peptides are the most widespread in nature with diverse structure, and are usually expressed in the epithelial cells of biological barriers and phagocytes. They cause lysis of the cell membrane of invading pathogens, thus act as antibiotics and are integral component of innate host defense mechanism. However, recent studies proved that these novel peptides are a family of multifunctional biomolecules and possess some additional properties like anti-cancer activity, mitogenic activity, and play role in signal transduction pathway as well as in adaptive immune response. This group of peptides has the potential to be the innovative alternative to chemical antibiotics with a promising future as biotechnological tools.