Antimicrobial Peptides from Silkworm and Their Therapeutic Application

The menace that antimicrobial resistance is posing toward global public health is on the rise as conventional antibiotics fail to cure pathogenic infections and as such the discovery of alternative unique therapeutics is the need of the hour. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) happen to be one such class of novel therapeutics as they possess minute size, amphipathic stereo geometry, low toxicity, self-association with the biological membranes and a vast range of bioactivities including antibacterial, antifungal and antiproliferative behavior. Cecropins, defensins, attacins, gloverin, lebocin and enbrocin are primarily the different AMP classes from silkworms although these peptides are produced by all groups ranging from invertebrates to vertebrates. Cecropin A from Galleria mellonella and Cec B and CecXJ from Bombyx mori are capable of destroying uropathogenic Escherichia coli cells that have formed biofilms, improving survival rate in malignant ascites-bearing mice and exhibiting antiproliferative properties in mice respectively. Exploiting their therapeutic potential will serve as a boon as they are effective against multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogenic strains without stimulating mutation rates in bacteria like E. coli and can be utilized as an adjuvant with conventional antibiotics to boost the effect. Although their high production cost and bodily proteolytic degradation impede their application, still the use of nanotechnology and amino acid replacement could be the rescuers and aid in the exploration of the therapeutic potential of these AMPs in the long run.