The escalation of multidrug-resistant pathogens has created a dire need to develop novel ways of addressing this global therapeutic challenge. Because of their antimicrobial activities, the combination of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and nanoparticles is a promising tool with which to kill drug-resistant pathogens. In recent years, several studies using AMP–nanoparticle conjugates, especially metallic nanoparticles, as potential antimicrobial agents against drug-resistant pathogens have been published. Among these, antimicrobial-peptide-conjugated gold nanoparticles (AMP–AuNPs) are particularly attractive because of the nontoxic nature of gold and the possibility of fine-tuning the AMP–NP conjugation chemistry. The following review discusses recent developments in the synthesis and antimicrobial activity studies of AMP–AuNPs. The classification of AMPs, their mechanisms of action, methods used for functionalizing AuNPs with AMPs, and the antimicrobial activities of the conjugates are discussed.

中文翻译：

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抗菌肽结合金纳米粒子的最新进展。

多重耐药性病原体的升级已经迫切需要开发新的方法来应对这一全球性治疗挑战。由于其抗菌活性，抗菌肽（AMPs）和纳米颗粒的组合是一种有希望的工具，可用来杀死耐药性病原体。近年来，已经发表了一些使用AMP-纳米颗粒共轭物，特别是金属纳米颗粒作为抗药性病原体的潜在抗菌剂的研究。其中，抗菌肽共轭金纳米颗粒（AMP-AuNPs）特别吸引人，因为金的无毒性质以及对AMP-NP共轭化学进行微调的可能性。以下评论讨论了AMP–AuNPs的合成和抗菌活性研究的最新进展。