To Fully Exploit the Therapeutic Potential of Antimicrobial Peptides,Additional Research is Required to Develop Improved Bacterial Lipid Membrane Model Systems

For an antimicrobial peptide to be deemed therapeutically effective it must selectively disrupt bacterial membranes while leaving mammalian membranes intact. The chemical composition, and thus the physicochemical properties, of the lipid membranes of bacteria cells play a defining role in determining the membrane selectivity of antimicrobial peptides. It is therefore critically important to develop an understanding of how the physicochemical properties of antimicrobial peptides interact with the physicochemical properties of lipid membrane in order to maximize membrane selectivity and thus the therapeutic potential of antimicrobial peptides. To address this issue there are two questions that must be answered. One, what types of lipid models are most appropriate to use to mimic the various types of bacterial membranes? And secondly, what types of experiments should be conducted to provide the most useful information in order to design antimicrobial peptide with increased therapeutic potential.