Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) were firstly discovered as cytotoxic substances that killed bacteria. Later they were described as biologically active peptides that are able not only to kill invaders but also to modulate host immunity. In particular, it is shown that human antimicrobial peptides are able to influence the activity of different innate and adaptive immunity components, thus, obviously, they also participate in autoimmune processes. In this review we discuss the nature of human AMPs and analyze their role in such autoimmune disorders like type 1 diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, psoriasis, Crohn's disease and sarcoidosis. These peptides were shown to have a "double-sided" influence on the autoimmune disease pathogenesis. Thus, described facts should be taken into account for the development of new pharmaceutical agents to cure patients with autoimmune disorders. These agents could derive from natural antimicrobial peptides that in some cases modulate immune response. For example, it was shown that human AMPs are able to modulate complement system dysregulation of which is known to be one of the most dangerous pathogenic factors during autoimmune processes.

中文翻译：

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人类自身抗菌肽。

抗菌肽（AMPs）首先被发现是杀死细菌的细胞毒性物质。后来，它们被描述为具有生物活性的肽，不仅能够杀死入侵者，而且能够调节宿主的免疫力。特别地，显示出人抗微生物肽能够影响不同的先天和适应性免疫组分的活性，因此，显然，它们也参与自身免疫过程。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了人类AMP的性质，并分析了它们在这类自身免疫性疾病中的作用，例如1型糖尿病，类风湿性关节炎，系统性红斑狼疮，牛皮癣，克罗恩病和结节病。这些肽显示出对自身免疫疾病发病机理具有“双面”影响。从而，对于开发用于治疗自身免疫性疾病患者的新药物，应考虑到上述事实。这些试剂可源自天然抗菌肽，在某些情况下可调节免疫反应。例如，已经表明，人AMP能够调节补体系统失调，已知其是自身免疫过程中最危险的致病因素之一。