Recent progress of antimicrobial peptides in sepsis treatment

Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction due to the dysregulation of host responses during infection. Severe systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) is the primary pathophysiological feature. Despite the classical antibiotic therapies play an important role in sepsis, the emergence of multi-resistant bacteria makes a greater challenge in clinical. Antimicrobial peptides (AMP) which consist of small cationic peptides, can be found in most organisms. As a result of their board-spectrum antibacterial activities and immunoregulatory functions, AMPs may have an excellent effect on the treatment of sepsis. In this review, we will discuss the basic role of AMPs in sepsis treatment and their application prospect and the challenges which need to be resolved in order to provide ideas for clinical application of AMPs.