Killer peptide: a novel paradigm of antimicrobial, antiviral and immunomodulatory auto-delivering drugs.

Magliani, Walter; Conti, Stefania; Ciociola, Tecla; Giovati, Laura; Zanello, Pier Paolo; Pertinhez, Thelma; Spisni, Alberto; Polonelli, Luciano

The incidence of life-threatening viral and microbial infections has dramatically increased over recent decades. Despite significant developments in anti-infective chemotherapy, many issues have increasingly narrowed the therapeutic options, making it imperative to discover new effective molecules. Among them, small peptides are arousing great interest. This review will focus in particular on a killer peptide, engineered from an anti-idiotypic recombinant antibody that mimics the activity of a wide-spectrum antimicrobial yeast killer toxin targeting β-glucan cell-wall receptors. The in vitro and in vivo antimicrobial, antiviral and immunomodulatory activities of killer peptide and its ability to spontaneously and reversibly self-assemble and slowly release its active dimeric form over time will be discussed as a novel paradigm of targeted auto-delivering drugs.