Abstract:
Increased morbidity and mortality from bacterial infections and the ability of bacteria to mutate and become resistant to successive generations of antibiotics necessitates the development of novel antibacterial drugs. Novel platforms that help to deepen our current understanding of antibacterial drug discovery and create drugs that can be used as weapons against lethal bacterial infections are urgently needed. Pseudomonas aeuriginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli are bacterial pathogens implicated in numerous severe health conditions and infections. Nature has provided us with an enormous amount of compounds (from small molecules to peptides) that can be used effectively towards the fight against bacterial infections. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are widely distributed in humans, plants and animals and play crucial roles in protecting the host from bacterial infections. AMPs primarily target the bacterial cell membrane and either create pores or cover the membrane like a carpet ultimately causing bacterial cell lysis. This thesis reports the synthesis, structural characterisation and biological evaluation of several antimicrobial peptides.