Antisense peptide nucleic acids as a potential anti-infective agent

Antibiotics have long been used for anti-infective control of bacterial infections, growth promotion in husbandry, and prophylactic protection against plant pathogens. However, their inappropriate use results in the emergence and spread of multiple drug resistance (MDR) especially among various bacterial populations, which limits further administration of conventional antibiotics. Therefore, the demand for novel anti-infective approaches against MDR diseases becomes increasing in recent years. The peptide nucleic acid (PNA)-based technology has been proposed as one of novel anti-infective and/or therapeutic strategies. By definition, PNA is an artificially synthesized nucleic acid mimic structurally similar to DNA or RNA in nature and linked one another via an unnatural pseudo-peptide backbone, rendering to its stability in diverse host conditions. It can bind DNA or RNA strands complimentarily with high affinity and sequence specificity, which induces the target-specific gene silencing by inhibiting transcription and/or translation. Based on these unique properties, PNA has been widely applied for molecular diagnosis as well as considered as a potential anti-infective agent. In this review, we discuss the general features of PNAs and their application to various bacterial pathogens as new anti-infective or antimicrobial agents.