Nanosystems as Vehicles for the Delivery of Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs)
Ángela Martin-Serrano,
Rafael Gómez,
Paula Ortega,
F. Javier de la Mata
Affiliations
Ángela Martin-Serrano
Department of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry, and Research Institute in Chemistry ”Andrés M. Del Río” (IQAR), University of Alcalá, 28805 Madrid, Spain
Rafael Gómez
Department of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry, and Research Institute in Chemistry ”Andrés M. Del Río” (IQAR), University of Alcalá, 28805 Madrid, Spain
Paula Ortega
Department of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry, and Research Institute in Chemistry ”Andrés M. Del Río” (IQAR), University of Alcalá, 28805 Madrid, Spain
F. Javier de la Mata
Department of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry, and Research Institute in Chemistry ”Andrés M. Del Río” (IQAR), University of Alcalá, 28805 Madrid, Spain
Recently, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), also called host defence peptides (HDPs), are attracting great interest, as they are a highly viable alternative in the search of new approaches to the resistance presented by bacteria against antibiotics in infectious diseases. However, due to their nature, they present a series of disadvantages such as low bioavailability, easy degradability by proteases, or low solubility, among others, which limits their use as antimicrobial agents. For all these reasons, the use of vehicles for the delivery of AMPs, such as polymers, nanoparticles, micelles, carbon nanotubes, dendrimers, and other types of systems, allows the use of AMPs as a real alternative to treatment with antibiotics.
