The common abuse of antibiotics during the twentieth century caused the development of many multiresistant pathogens to classic antibiotics. To find new strategies to fight against resistant pathogens is the challenge of the twenty-first century. Since they seem to be natural antibiotics, peptides produced by bacteria, insects, amphibians and mammals with cytotoxic activities against bacteria, mycobacteria, fungi and enveloped viruses are one of the groups with prospects for use in therapy against pathogens. Such peptides protect the cells which produce them. Cationic peptides are a huge group of antimicrobial peptides, consisting of a number of families, e.g. defensins and cathelicidins. Their expression was initially found in phagocyte cells, like macrophages and neutrophiles as well as in epithelial cells. The aim of this study was to present a review of antimicrobial peptides identified in humans and in economically important farm animals and to discuss the possibilities of using them in therapy and prophylaxis.
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