Peptides from the inside of the antibodies are active against infectious agents and tumours

Abstract

Synthetic peptides, representative of sequences related to the complementarity determining regions and constant region of antibodies, proved to exert in vitro, ex vivo and/or in vivo antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-tumour and/or immunomodulatory activities, conceivably mediated by different mechanisms of action and regardless of the specificity and isotype of the belonging immunoglobulin. Antibody-derived peptides can show intrinsic properties of self-aggregation in β structures, able to assemble on molecular targets and dissociate spontaneously, leading to the formation of hydrogels. Whilst the self-assembled state may provide protection against proteases and the slow kinetic of dissociation assures a release of the active form over time, the receptor affinity is responsible for targeted delivery. Peptides derived from single amino acid substitution of bioactive antibody fragments, adopted as surrogates of natural point mutations, displayed further differential biological activities. Overall, these observations allow to envisage that antibodies could represent an unlimited source of new anti-infective and anti-tumour peptides.