Human cathelicidin peptide LL-37 as a therapeutic antiviral targeting Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus infections

Publication date: Available online 8 February 2019Source: Antiviral ResearchAuthor(s): Aslaa Ahmed, Gavriella Siman-Tov, Forrest Keck, Stephanie Kortchak, Allison Bakovic, Kenneth Risner, Timothy K. Lu, Nishank Bhalla, Cesar de la Fuente-Nunez, Aarthi NarayananAbstractVenezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV), a new world alphavirus belonging to the Togaviridae family, causes periodic disease outbreaks in humans and equines with high associated mortality and morbidity. VEEV is highly infectious via the aerosol route and so has been developed as a biological weapon (Hawley and Eitzen, 2001). Despite its current classification as a category B select agent, there are no FDA approved vaccines or therapeutics to counter VEEV infections. Here we utilize a naturally occurring host defense peptide, LL-37, as a therapeutic strategy to inhibit VEEV multiplication in infected cells. LL-37 has previously demonstrated activity against several viruses by directly interacting with viral particles and indirectly by establishing an antiviral state in the host cell. We show that LL-37 exhibited potent antiviral activity against VEEV by inhibiting viral replication. Genomic RNA copies of the TC-83 strain of VEEV and viral titers were significantly reduced compared to non-treated controls. LL-37 also inhibited the virulent Trinidad Donkey (TrD) strain of VEEV. Entry assays revealed a robust reduction of viral RNA copies at the early stages of TC-83 infection. Pre-incubation of cells with LL-37...
Source: Antiviral Therapy - Category: Virology Source Type: research