Defensins – natural peptide antibiotics of higher eucariotes

The goal of this review is to characterize defensins representing an evolutionary the most ancient family of antimicrobial peptides. It gives general information on functional and structural features of defensins as the main components of the first-line defense of higher eukaryote organisms against infectious agents. The review considers not only current situation in the defensin research but also perspectives of creation of recombinant antimicrobial peptides of biomedical application.