Introduction：
Recently, a variant of gonorrhea bacteria has emerged in Japan, which can resist all existing antibiotics. British experts have also issued warnings that first-line antibiotics for treating gonorrhea have developed resistance, and there may be no cure for this disease in the future.
The Consequences of Human Misuse of Antibiotics
Penicillin, tetracycline, and ciprofloxacin are commonly used drugs in the medical community to treat gonorrhea, but these drugs no longer have a fundamental effect on bacteria.This is the result of human abuse of antibiotics.
However, this does not mean that humans are helpless about it. Nowadays, many scientists are actively developing new antibiotics and hoping to reduce bacterial resistance through various methods.
Peptide antibiotics are a good example. This type of small molecule substance developed through biological genetic engineering technology can almost represent the future direction of antibiotic research and development to some extent.
The Application Status of Peptide Antibiotics
Most existing antibiotics target key metabolic pathways required for reproduction, so they are only effective against pathogens in the replication phase; Peptide antibiotics, on the other hand, target membranes and are effective against both metabolically active and non metabolically active microorganisms.
This unique mode of action has not yet led to the issue of drug resistance. This means that peptide antibiotics can not only safely and effectively eliminate pathogens, but also minimize or even eliminate the risk of drug resistance, thereby solving the current problem of drug resistance faced by humans.
Pharmaceutical companies have been exploring new methods to develop antibiotics that do not produce resistance in bacteria. In recent years, experts have even drawn bacterial genetic maps to find new drug targets and screen enzyme inhibitors that block critical metabolic pathways in bacteria. However, these methods have encountered difficulties.
Scientists are beginning to review the history of antibiotic development and recall some abandoned research results. Fortunately, they have discovered the potential of peptide based anti infective substances in combating bacteria. At the same time, the development of genetic engineering technology has also made it possible to conduct more research on peptides.
Introduction to Peptide Antibiotics
Peptide antibiotics are small molecule peptides with biological activity that are induced and produced in organisms. They have a molecular weight of around 2000-7000 and are composed of 20-60 amino acid residues. There are currently over 1200 known peptide antibiotics in the world.
Due to the initial discovery that these active peptides had broad-spectrum and efficient bactericidal activity against bacteria, they were named “antimicrobial peptides, ABP”. With the deepening of research work, it was found that certain antimicrobial peptides have strong killing effects on some fungi, protozoa, viruses, and cancer cells, hence they are called peptide antibiotics.At present, some peptide drugs can be synthesized in the peptide laboratory, which can be referred to as Omizzur Biotech.
Mechanism of Action of Peptide Antibiotics
Since the discovery of peptide antibiotics, scientists have conducted extensive research on the bactericidal mechanism of peptide antibiotics.
At present, it is known that peptide antibiotics act by acting on bacterial cell membranes, among which the most clearly studied is cecropin. At present, it is generally believed that the bactericidal mechanism of cecropin peptide antibiotics is that cecropin acts on the cell membrane of microorganisms, forming transmembrane ion channels on the membrane, disrupting the integrity of the membrane, causing leakage of cell contents, and ultimately killing cells.
Among peptide antibiotics, different antibiotics have different antibacterial effects and can respectively resist infections of Gram positive bacteria, Gram negative bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, fungi, viruses, spirochetes, and protozoa. They have good therapeutic effects on diseases such as sepsis, respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, and bovine mastitis. Small doses inhibit bacteria, while large doses kill bacteria.
The mechanism of action of peptide antibiotics also varies. Polymyxin antibiotics can alter the function of bacterial cytoplasmic membranes, while bacitracin acts on cell walls and cytoplasm.
The biggest advantage of peptide antibiotics is that bacteria are less likely to develop resistance, but the disadvantage is that they are highly toxic. In addition to damaging bacterial cell membranes, they also have effects on animal cell membranes, mainly toxic to the kidneys and nervous system.
Advantages of Peptide Antibiotics Compared to Ordinary Antibiotics
The antibacterial mechanism of antibiotics is the binding of antibiotics to receptors at specific parts of the pathogen, which disrupts the normal structure of the pathogen or hinders some biosynthesis, in order to achieve antibacterial or bactericidal effects. When the target site of their action changes, antibiotics lose their antibacterial effect, which is the main reason why bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics.
Peptide antibiotics directly damage the cell membrane of pathogens and kill bacteria, so they are less likely to develop resistance. In addition, it also has strong alkalinity, thermal stability, and broad-spectrum antibacterial properties.
At present, all conventional antibiotics have developed corresponding resistant pathogenic strains, and the problem of antibiotic resistance of pathogenic bacteria is increasingly threatening people’s health.
Finding new types of antibiotics is an effective way to solve the problem of drug resistance. Peptide antibiotics are believed to have broad application prospects in the pharmaceutical industry due to their high antibacterial activity, wide antibacterial spectrum, variety, wide range of options, and low susceptibility to resistance mutations in target strains.
Currently, multiple peptide antibiotics are undergoing preclinical feasibility studies. However, the research on peptide antibiotics has only been a short 30 years, and there are still many problems in achieving widespread commercial use to replace antibiotics, including source, cost, and technical issues.