Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) found in a wide range of animal, insect, and plant species are host defense peptides forming an integral part of their innate immunity. Although the exact mode of action of some AMPs is yet to be deciphered, many exhibit membrane lytic activity or interact with intracellular targets. The ever-growing threat of antibiotic resistance has brought attention to research on AMPs to enhance their clinical use as a therapeutic alternative. AMPs have several advantages over antibiotics such as broad range of antimicrobial activities including anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-bacterial, and have not reported to contribute to resistance development. Despite the numerous studies to develop efficient production methods for AMPs, limitations including low yield, degradation, and loss of activity persists in many recombinant approaches. In this review, we outline available approaches for AMP production and various expression systems used to achieve higher yield and quality. In addition, recent advances in recombinant strategies, suitable fusion protein partners, and other molecular engineering strategies for improved AMP production are surveyed.

在广泛的动物、昆虫和植物物种中发现的抗菌肽 (AMP) 是宿主防御肽，构成其先天免疫的一个组成部分。尽管某些 AMP 的确切作用模式尚待破译，但许多 AMP 表现出膜裂解活性或与细胞内靶标相互作用。抗生素耐药性日益增长的威胁引起了人们对 AMP 研究的关注，以加强其作为治疗替代品的临床应用。AMPs 与抗生素相比有几个优势，例如广泛的抗菌活性，包括抗真菌、抗病毒和抗细菌，并​​且没有报告有助于耐药性的发展。尽管为开发 AMPs 的有效生产方法进行了大量研究，但包括低产量、降解、在许多重组方法中持续存在活性丧失。在这篇综述中，我们概述了 AMP 生产的可用方法和用于实现更高产量和质量的各种表达系统。此外，还调查了重组策略、合适的融合蛋白伙伴和其他用于改进 AMP 生产的分子工程策略的最新进展。