Abstract:
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a heterogeneous class of compounds found in a variety of organisms including humans and,
so far, hundreds of these structures have been isolated and characterised. They can be described as natural microbicide, selectively
cytotoxic to bacteria, whilst showing minimal cytotoxicity towards the mammalian cells of the host organism. They act by their
relatively strong electrostatic attraction to the negatively charged bacterial cells and a relatively weak interaction to the eukaryote
host cells. The ability of these peptides to accumulate at sites of infection combined with the minimal host’s cytotoxicity motivated
for this review to highlight the role and the usefulness of AMPs for PET with emphasis on their mechanism of action and the
different interactions with the bacterial cell. These details are key information for their selective properties. We also describe the
strategy, design, and utilization of these peptides as potential radiopharmaceuticals as their combination with nuclear medicine
modalities such as SPECT or PET would allow noninvasive whole-body examination for detection of occult infection causing, for
example, fever of unknown origin.
