Recent Developments in Antimicrobial-Peptide-Conjugated Gold Nanoparticles

The escalation of multidrug-resistant pathogens has created a dire need to develop novel ways of addressing this global therapeutic challenge. Because of their antimicrobial activities, the combination of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and nanoparticles is a promising tool with which to kill drug-resistant pathogens. In recent years, several studies using AMP-nanoparticle conjugates, especially metallic nanoparticles, as potential antimicrobial agents against drug-resistant pathogens have been published. Among these, antimicrobial-peptide-conjugated gold nanoparticles (AMP-AuNPs) are particularly attractive because of the nontoxic nature of gold and the possibility of fine-tuning the AMP-NP conjugation chemistry. The following review discusses recent developments in the synthesis and antimicrobial activity studies of AMP-AuNPs. The classification of AMPs, their mechanisms of action, methods used for functionalizing AuNPs with AMPs, and the antimicrobial activities of the conjugates are discussed.