Background: Antibiotic resistance is a global issue and new anti-microbials are required. Introduction: Anti-microbial peptides are important players of host innate immune systems that prevent infections. Due to their ability to eliminate drug-resistant pathogens, AMPs are promising candidates for developing the next generation of anti-microbials.

Methods: The anti-microbial peptide database provides a useful tool for searching, predicting, and designing new AMPs. In the period from 2015-2019, ~500 new natural peptides have been registered.

Results: This article highlights a selected set of new AMP members with interesting properties. Teixobactin is a cell wall inhibiting peptide antibiotic, while darobactin inhibits a chaperone and translocator for outer membrane proteins. Remarkably, cOB1, a sex pheromone from commensal enterococci, restricts the growth of multidrug-resistant Enterococcus faecalis in the gut at a picomolar concentration. A novel proline-rich AMP has been found in the plant Brassica napus. A shrimp peptide MjPen- II comprises three different sequence domains: serine-rich, proline-rich, and cysteine-rich regions. Surprisingly, an amphibian peptide urumin specifically inhibits H1 hemagglutinin-bearing influenza A virus. Defensins are abundant and typically consist of three pairs of intramolecular disulfide bonds. However, rat rattusin dimerizes via forming five pairs of intermolecular disulfide bonds. While human LL-37 can be induced by vitamin D, vitamin A induces the expression of resistin-like molecule alpha (RELMα) in mice. The isolation and characterization of an alternative human cathelicidin peptide, TLN-58, substantiates the concept of one gene multiple peptides. The involvement of a fly AMP nemuri in sleep induction may promote the research on the relationship between sleep and infection control.

Conclusion: The functional roles of AMPs continue to grow and the general term “innate immune peptides” becomes useful. These discoveries widen our view on the anti-microbial peptides and may open new opportunities for developing novel peptide therapeutics for different applications.

背景：抗生素耐药性是一个全球性问题，需要新的抗微生物药物。简介：抗菌肽是宿主先天免疫系统预防感染的重要参与者。由于具有消除耐药病原体的能力，AMP 有望成为开发下一代抗微生物药物的候选药物。

方法：抗菌肽数据库为搜索、预测和设计新的 AMP 提供了有用的工具。在 2015-2019 年期间，约 500 种新的天然肽已被注册。

结果：本文重点介绍了一组选定的具有有趣属性的新 AMP 成员。Teixobactin 是一种细胞壁抑制肽抗生素，而 darobactin 抑制外膜蛋白的伴侣和转运蛋白。值得注意的是，来自共生肠球菌的性信息素 cOB1 以皮摩尔浓度限制耐多药粪肠球菌在肠道中的生长。在欧洲油菜植物中发现了一种新的富含脯氨酸的 AMP。虾肽 MjPen-II 包含三个不同的序列结构域：富含丝氨酸、富含脯氨酸和富含半胱氨酸的区域。令人惊讶的是，一种两栖动物肽 urumin 可特异性抑制携带 H1 血凝素的甲型流感病毒。防御素含量丰富，通常由三对分子内二硫键组成。然而，大鼠rattusin通过形成五对分子间二硫键二聚化。虽然维生素 D 可以诱导人类 LL-37，但维生素 A 会诱导小鼠中抵抗素样分子 α (RELMα) 的表达。另一种人导管素肽 TLN-58 的分离和表征证实了一个基因多肽的概念。苍蝇AMP nemuri参与睡眠诱导可能促进对睡眠与感染控制关系的研究。

结论：AMP 的功能作用不断增强，通用术语“先天免疫肽”变得有用。这些发现拓宽了我们对抗菌肽的认识，并可能为开发用于不同应用的新型肽疗法开辟新的机会。