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Antimicrobial Peptides as Endogenous Antibacterials and Antivirals at the Ocular Surface

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Antimicrobial Peptides

Part of the book series: Birkhäuser Advances in Infectious Diseases ((BAID))

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Abstract

Ocular surface infections are a significant cause of blindness worldwide particularly in developing countries and are mainly caused by bacteria, fungal species, and parasites as well as by viruses. Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumonia, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are reported to be the most common bacteria associated with keratitis where the most frequent viruses leading to ocular surface infection are herpes simplex, adenovirus, and vaccinia virus. The eye and its adnexa have evolved a bulk of defense strategies to prevent microbial invasion. These include important components of the innate defense system in form of classical antimicrobial compounds as well as members of the cationic antimicrobial peptide family, distinct surfactant proteins, and potential new candidate molecules contributing to antimicrobial protection. Several of them are studied at the ocular surface not only for their antimicrobial properties, but based on easy topical application possibilities for their potential therapeutic effects. As several reviews already summarized the current knowledge with regard to the eye, this chapter will only briefly recapitulate the current knowledge of antimicrobial compound expression in the eye and then will focus on infectious keratitis resulting from bacterial and viral infection. In addition, the potential of using such peptides as therapeutics for treating bacterial and viral ocular surface infections will be elucidated.

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Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Jörg Pekarsky, Department of Anatomy II, FAU Erlangen, Germany, for drawing Figures 2.1 + 2.2 and Gerd Geerling, Director and Head, Department of Ophthalmology, Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany, for providing us with Figure 2.3. Supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant PA738/9-2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy II, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen Nürnberg, Universitätsstraße 19, 91054, Erlangen, Germany

    Fabian Garreis, Martin Schicht & Friedrich Paulsen

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  1. Fabian Garreis
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  2. Martin Schicht
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  3. Friedrich Paulsen
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Correspondence to Friedrich Paulsen .

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  1. Department of Dermatology, University-Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Jürgen Harder

  2. Department of Dermatology, University-Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Jens-M. Schröder

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Garreis, F., Schicht, M., Paulsen, F. (2016). Antimicrobial Peptides as Endogenous Antibacterials and Antivirals at the Ocular Surface. In: Harder, J., Schröder, JM. (eds) Antimicrobial Peptides. Birkhäuser Advances in Infectious Diseases. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24199-9_2

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