Language: Spanish
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ABSTRACT

The growing incidence of infectious disease in recent years may be attributed to several causes, among them acquired immunodeficiencies (AIDS, organ transplant, oncological chemotherapy), human migration and the consequent import of diseases into susceptible populations, and the excessive use of antibiotics. This situation has fostered the search for new therapeutic candidates for the development of more effective treatments. Antimicrobial peptides are a promising alternative in this respect, due to their broad spectrum of activity against several pathogenic microorganisms. Moreover, they are widely distributed in nature, from unicellular organisms to mammals. Some antimicrobial peptides are already being evaluated in clinical studies, though many of them have not produced any favorable results in vivo due to their low metabolic stability and their toxicity, among other factors. Several strategies have been developed to overcome the above mentioned drawbacks, among them conjugation of microbial peptides with magnetic nanoparticles and chemical modification of their structure. The present study is aimed at reviewing the potential therapeutic applications of these molecules based on information published in MedLine, the Web of Science and Scopus in recent years.