Antimicrobial peptides and their potential application in inflammation and sepsis

Starting treatment early is key to increasing survival in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock. The crucial significance of timing has been demonstrated for the treatment of circulatory failure [ 1 ], use of antibiotics [ 2 ] and use of activated protein C as adjunctive therapy [ 3 ]. Whereas it is of vital importance not only to begin anti-infective therapy as soon as possible but to also choose the adequate anti-infective drug [ 4 ], the impending problem is the growing number of multi-resistant bacteria [ 5 ]. Therefore, there is an increasing interest in the identification and development of new anti-infective agents.