Table 3.

Activities of AMPs in gynecological cancers.

AMPs	Cancers	Functions	Mechanisms	Refs.
HBD3	Cervical	Tumorigenic; pro-metastatic	Inducing cell cycle regulators and NF-κB signaling pathway.	[12]
S100A7	Cervical	Tumorigenic; pro-metastatic	Inducing ERK signaling pathway and mediating EMT.	[58]
S100A7	Ovarian	Tumorigenic; pro-metastatic; chemoresistance	Activating p38, JNK and ERK and regulating cyclin D1, MMP9 and p27.	[68]
LL-37	Ovarian	Tumorigenic, pro-metastatic (low concentrations: 0, 1, 5 and 10 μg/mL)	Activating MAPK signaling pathway and enzymes to degrade extracellular matrix.	[87,98]
LL-37	Ovarian	Anticancer (high concentrations: 50 and 100 μg/mL)	Increasing the uptake of CpG-ODN into immune cells to enhance antitumor effects.	[102]
SLPI	Ovarian	Tumorigenic; pro-metastatic; chemoresistance	Preventing cell apoptosis, inducing MMP9 and activating MAPK/ERK.	[96,97,103],
SLPI	Ovarian	Anticancer	Activating apoptosis through Caspase-2, Caspase-8 and Caspase-9.	[69]
SLPI	Endometrial	Tumorigenic	Activating cell proliferation and inhibiting growth suppressors.	[105]
HE4	Endometrial	Tumorigenic; pro-metastatic	Cell cycle control.	[91]
elafin	Ovarian	Tumorigenic and chemoresistance	Activating MAPK/ERK and NF-κB signaling pathway.	[95]
HBD-2	Cervical	Concentration-dependent: 1. 0.01–2 μg/mL, proliferation; 2.3–5 μg/mL, inhibition; 3. >20–40 μg/mL, cell lysis.	Unknown	[55]
SP-D	Ovarian	Anticancer	Inducing apoptosis.	[120]
HD5	Cervical	Reducing HPV16 infection	Directing the viral genome to the lysosome instead of trans-Golgi network.	[128]
HNP2	Cervical	Restoring normal immune function.	Inducing recruitment of dendritic cells to neoplastic lesions.	[89]