Current advances and emerging prospects of specifically targeted antimicrobial peptides: A comprehensive review

To prevent the indiscriminate impact of traditional antimicrobials on both harmful and beneficial microbes in the host, specifically targeted antimicrobial peptides (STAMPs) have been designed and developed. This review provides a comprehensive summary of recent advancements in STAMPs, with an emphasis on their structure, antimicrobial activity, design strategies, applications, challenges, and future prospects. STAMPs are composed of targeting, linker, and killing domains, which facilitate the precise elimination of specific pathogens while minimizing impacts on non-targeted microorganisms. The targeting domain of STAMP is of critical importance, as it confers specificity in the recognition and binding to pathogens. Current design strategies for targeting domain employ bacterial pheromones, receptor-binding proteins (RBPs) from bacteriophages, antibodies, and specific binding peptides. STAMPs demonstrate significant potential across various fields, including clinical medicine, agriculture, biomaterials, and food preservation. Although numerous challenges remain, advancements in computer-aided design (CAD) and synthetic biology are expected to significantly facilitate the rational design and production of STAMPs.