Inhibition of peptide BF-30 on influenza A virus infection in vitro/vivo by causing virion membrane fusion

Abstract

Influenza A virus is a leading cause of mortality in humans and poses a global health emergency due to its newly adapted and resistant strains. Thus, there is an urgency to develop novel anti-influenza drugs. Peptides are a type of biological molecule having a wide range of inhibitory effects against bacteria, fungi, viruses and cancer cells. The prospects of several peptides and their mechanisms of action have received significant attention. BF-30, a 30 amino acid residue peptide isolated from the venom of the snake, Bungarus fasciatus, is reported to have antibacterial and antitumor activities. Here, we demonstrated that the 50% cytotoxic concentration (CC50) of the peptide to MDCK cells is 67.7 μM. While BF-30 could inhibit the influenza virus strains H1N1, H3N2 and the oseltamivir-resistant strain H1N1, in vitro, with 50% effective concentration (EC50) of 5.2, 7.4 and 18.9 μM, respectively. In animal experiments, mice treated with BF-30 showed 50% survival at a dosage of 4 μM, with an approximately 2 log viral titer decrease in the lung. However, further studies showed that BF-30 worked on only the virus invasion stage, and inhibited the influenza virus infection by causing virion membrane fusion rather than interacting with hemagglutinin or neuraminidase. These results demonstrated that the peptide BF-30 exhibited an effective inhibitory activity against the influenza A virus and could be a promising candidate for influenza virus therapy.