Peptides are considered very important due to the diversity expressed through their amino acid sequence, structure variation, large spectrum, and their essential role in biological systems. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) emerged as a potent tool in therapy owing to their antimicrobial properties but also their ability to trespass the membranes, specificity, and low toxicity. They comprise a variety of peptides from which specific amino acid-rich peptides are of interest to the current review due to their features in metal interaction and cell penetration. Histidine-rich peptides such as Histatins belong to the metal binding salivary residing peptides with efficient antibacterial, antifungal, and wound-healing activities. Furthermore, their ability to activate in acidic environment attracted the attention to their potential in therapy. The current review covers the current knowledge about AMPs and critically assess the potential of associating with metal ions both structurally and functionally. This review provides interesting hints for the advantages provided by AMPs and metal ions in biomedicine, making use of their direct properties in brain diseases therapy or in the creation of new bio-functionalized nanoparticles for cancer diagnosis and treatment.

中文翻译：

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纳米粒子生物功能化中的金属结合抗菌肽：药物输送和治疗的新高度。

肽由于其氨基酸序列，结构变异，大光谱及其在生物系统中的重要作用而表现出的多样性，因此被认为非常重要。抗菌肽（AMPs）由于具有抗菌特性，但具有穿透膜的能力，特异性和低毒性，因此成为一种有效的治疗工具。它们包含各种肽，由于它们在金属相互作用和细胞渗透方面的特征，因此特定的富含氨基酸的肽是当前研究的关注对象。富含组氨酸的肽（例如，Histatins）属于具有有效抗菌，抗真菌和伤口愈合活性的金属结合唾液驻留肽。此外，它们在酸性环境中的活化能力引起了人们对其治疗潜力的关注。本篇综述涵盖了有关AMP的最新知识，并从结构和功能上严格评估了与金属离子缔合的潜力。这项综述为AMP和金属离子在生物医学中的优势提供了有趣的提示，利用它们在脑疾病治疗中的直接特性或在用于癌症诊断和治疗的新型生物功能化纳米颗粒的创建中。