Host defense peptides (HDPs) comprise a heterogeneous group of evolutionarily conserved and biologically active small molecules that are produced by different organisms. HDPs are widely researched because they often have multiple biological activities, for example antimicrobial, immunomodulatory and anticancer activity. In this context, in this review we focus on cryptic HDPs, molecules derived specifically from proteolytic processing of endogenous precursor proteins. Here, we explore the biological activity of such molecules and we further discuss the development of optimized sequences based on these natural cryptic HDPs. In addition, we present clinical-phase studies of cryptic HDPs (natural or optimized), and point out the possible applicability of these molecules in medicinal chemistry.

宿主防御肽（HDP）包含由不同生物体产生的进化保守和具有生物活性的小分子异质组。HDP被广泛研究，因为它们通常具有多种生物学活性，例如抗微生物，免疫调节和抗癌活性。在这种情况下，在这篇综述中，我们着眼于隐秘的HDP，即专门从内源性前体蛋白的蛋白水解过程衍生的分子。在这里，我们探讨了此类分子的生物学活性，并进一步讨论了基于这些天然隐性HDP的优化序列的开发。此外，我们目前对隐性HDP（天然或优化的）进行临床阶段研究，并指出这些分子在药物化学中的可能适用性。