Antimicrobial peptides: new drugs for bad bugs?

Antibiotics have been among the most successful classes of therapeutics and have enabled many of modern medicine's greatest advances. However, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are emerging as critical public health threats, with recent accounts of bacterial strains resistant to all approved antibiotics. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are naturally occurring molecules with the potential to serve as the basis for a new class of anti-infectives targeting these difficult-to-treat bacteria. The unique activities and features of AMPs are discussed, with a focus toward the clinical importance of priming the antibiotic pipeline and the role AMPs can fulfill in the future of fighting drug-resistant bacteria.