Peptides that are structurally amphipathic and predominately either anionic or cationic are often found to possess the ability to kill microbes and/or cancer cells. There are a large range of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that have been identified from a variety of organisms have been found to not only kill microbes but also kill cancer cells. Thus many AMPs are or potentially are anticancer peptides (ACPs). This Research Topic will bring together research investigating how AMPs and ACPs are being used, functionalised and produced for clinical applications through a collection of original research and reviews. A primary aim is to highlight approaches that are used to improve efficacy of AMPs and ACPs and also draw attention to similarities in approaches and also what approaches work in one area but not in another. It is hoped that this collection of work would provide researchers with a bank of knowledge to aid in the design of AMPs and ACPs to combat the worldwide problem of antibiotic resistance in microbes and in treating cancer and chemotherapeutic-resistant disease.

Keywords: Antimicrobial peptides, anticancer peptides, synthetic peptides, bacterial therapeutics, cancer therapeutics

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