Antimicrobial peptides: structure modification and development with artificial intelligence

Abstract:

Antimicrobial peptides are peptides with low molecular weight found in almost all forms of life. They are part of the innate immune response of all classes of life, having broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and low potential to elicit resistance. Thus, they have unique advantages in combating infections and demonstrate the potential as ideal anti-infective agents. However, some problems such as poor stability and high toxicity limit their application. In recent years, it has been found that artificial intelligence can help develop stable antimicrobial peptides with low toxicity, showing great potential in exploring natural antimicrobial peptides. In this review, we briefly summarized the antimicrobial mechanism and structure modification of antimicrobial peptides as well as the strategy of using artificial intelligence algorithms such as machine learning and deep learning for research and development of antimicrobial peptides. This review is expected to provide new mindset for the structure optimization and development of antimicrobial peptides.