Yi Gong ¹ Qunhang Xue ¹ Jun Li ¹ Shicui Zhang ^2*

• ¹ Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China
• ² Department of Marine Biology/Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodervisity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong, China

In the post-COVID19 era, people are increasingly concerned about microbial infections, including fungal infections that have risen in recent years. However, the currently available antifungal agents are rather limited. Worse still, the widespread use of the antifungal agents has caused the emergence of antifungal resistance in Candida, Cryptococcus, and Aspergillus species. Therefore, the development of novel antifungals is urgently needed. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), as components of the first-line defense of host, are found to exhibit broad antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, parasites, viruses, and protozoa, and AMPs with antifungal activity are called antifungal peptides (AFPs). AFPs are now regarded as the most promising alternative to conventional antifungal agents due to the fact that they are highly selective, and less prone to facilitate the selection of drug resistance. In this review, we present an overview of the origin and classification of natural AFPs as well as their modes of action. Moreover, the production of natural, semisynthetic, and synthetic AFPs with a view to greater levels of exploitation is discussed. Finally, we evaluate the current and potential applications of AFPs in clinic and food industry.