Peptides and Dendrimers: How to Combat Viral and Bacterial Infections

Abstract

The alarming growth of antimicrobial resistance and recent viral pandemic events have enhanced the need for novel approaches through innovative agents that are mainly able to attach to the external layers of bacteria and viruses, causing permanent damage. Antimicrobial molecules are potent broad-spectrum agents with a high potential as novel therapeutics. In this context, antimicrobial peptides, cell penetrating peptides, and antiviral peptides play a major role, and have been suggested as promising solutions. Furthermore, dendrimers are to be considered as suitable macromolecules for the development of advanced nanosystems that are able to complement the typical properties of dendrimers with those of peptides. This review focuses on the description of nanoplatforms constructed with peptides and dendrimers, and their applications.

Nanoparticle as the Strategy for the Development of Sars-Cov-2 Antiviral Drugs

“…The antibacterial activity of dendrimer depends on the interaction of positive dendrimer charge and negative charge on the bacterial membrane surface, its ability to penetrate the bacterial membrane, and the destruction of the lipid bilayer. Cationic dendrimers have high antimicrobial activity due to their positive charge [85].…”

“…Dendrimer polyamidoamine (PAMAM) functionalized with sialic acid is very effective against murine influenza pneumonitis infection. Dendrimeric polyanionic can inhibit HIV, HSV, and other viruses by targeting the viral life cycle and preventing viral binding to host cells [85]. Anionic dendrimer PAMAM and cationic dendrimer have been shown to increase antiviral activity The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) [86].…”

“…Polyamidoamine conjugated generation 4 sialic acid has also been shown to prevent H3N2 influenza pneumonitis virus infection [87]. Polyanionic carbosilane in vitro and in vivo showed activity against Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) [85]. The positive charge of carbosilane dendrimers will interact with the negative charge of nucleic acids to form dendriplexes.…”

Targeted Delivery of Miconazole Employing LL37 Fragment Mutant Peptide CKR12-Poly (Lactic-Co-Glycolic) Acid Polymeric Micelles

“…As linear peptides have low oral bioavailability because of their short half-life, alpha-helical AMP mutagenesis may be a useful approach for increasing antimicrobial activity [ 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Previous studies have reported that peptides [ 6 ] with linked n -alkyl acids, hybrid peptides [ 7 ] designed by combining α-helical fragments with core antimicrobial cationic fragments, copolymers based on AMPs [ 8 ], combinations [ 9 ] of AMP and antimicrobial agents [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ], hybrid models of AMP and antimicrobial agents [ 13 ], hybrids comprised of AMPs with different mechanisms of action [ 14 ], dendrimers [ 15 ], and nanocarrier models [ 16 ] improve antimicrobial activity. However, in our previous study, AMP variants showed reduced antimicrobial activity against Candida albicans [ 17 ], which is the most common species causing fungal infections [ 18 , 19 ].…”

Dendrimers and Dendritic Materials against Infectious Diseases

“…Falanga et al [10] focus on the impact of dendritic nanoplatforms based on antimicrobial, antiviral and cell penetrating peptides, as potent broad-spectrum agents. The review provides an interesting overview of the main concepts involved in the design of antimicrobial peptides for dendrimer decoration, aiming to promote the clinical translation of these promising conjugates.…”