What are Antiviral Peptides ?
Antiviral peptides are peptides that potentially prevent the infection of a host by a virus. In general these antiviral peptides are derived from natural sources such as milk, the skin of amphibians, for example from frogs or toads; plants; or are synthetically designed peptides based on our knowledge, for example, how certain viruses interact and penetrate the host’s cell membrane. Many natural and synthetic peptides are known that exhibit antiviral activity against influenza viruses and others. They functions by inhibiting the attachment of a virus to host cells, thereby preventing viral infection. Recent studies showed that synthetic peptides were able to inhibited West Nile virus and dengue virus infection of cells in vitro. For example, vero cells treated with the EB peptide (RRKKAAVALLPAVLLALLAP) for less than 5 min were protected from infection with HSV-1 but protection was lost over a period of 5 to 8 h. The EB peptide induces influenza viral particles to aggregate and prevents binding and uptake by epithelial cells and allows for enhanced recognition by antigen presenting cells as well. The result is enhanced immunogenicity. Synthetic peptides may have several advantages and there is hope that with the use of computational biology still better achievements in the development of synthetic antiviral peptide maybe possible. Advantages of shorter synthetic antiviral peptides are (i) their usefulness in the prevention or treatment of influenza virus infections, (ii) potentially they are less expensive to produce, (iii) easier to delivery systemically than the longer versions, and (iiii) some of these peptides are capable of inhibiting viral hemagglutination. Shorter versions of antiviral peptides can be identified and optimized via peptide screens using peptide libraries designed from longer antiviral peptides.
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02/23/2014