The Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Potential of the Amphibian Peptide AR-23.

Annalisa Chianese,Alessandra Monti,Massimiliano Galdiero,Anna De Filippis,Carla Zannella,Gianluigi Franci,Nunzianna Doti

doi:10.3390/ijms23020883

Abstract

Viral infections represent a serious threat to the world population and are becoming more frequent. The search and identification of broad-spectrum antiviral molecules is necessary to ensure new therapeutic options, since there is a limited availability of effective antiviral drugs able to eradicate viral infections, and consequently due to the increase of strains that are resistant to the most used drugs. Recently, several studies on antimicrobial peptides identified them as promising antiviral agents. In detail, amphibian skin secretions serve as a rich source of natural antimicrobial peptides. Their antibacterial and antifungal activities have been widely reported, but their exploitation as potential antiviral agents have yet to be fully investigated. In the present study, the antiviral activity of the peptide derived from the secretion of Rana tagoi, named AR-23, was evaluated against both DNA and RNA viruses, with or without envelope. Different assays were performed to identify in which step of the infectious cycle the peptide could act. AR-23 exhibited a greater inhibitory activity in the early stages of infection against both DNA (HSV-1) and RNA (MeV, HPIV-2, HCoV-229E, and SARS-CoV-2) enveloped viruses and, on the contrary, it was inactive against naked viruses (PV-1). Altogether, the results indicated AR-23 as a peptide with potential therapeutic effects against a wide variety of human viruses.

Highlights

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutralCurrently viral infections are reporting a dramatic increase in morbidity and mortality around the world
The first step of our analysis was devoted to distinguishing antiviral activity from The first step of our analysis was devoted to distinguishing antiviral activity from cellular toxicity
To exclude the possibility that AR-23 could be cytotoxic on cellular toxicity

Summary

Introduction

Viral infections are reporting a dramatic increase in morbidity and mortality around the world. The Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognized it as the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the beginning of the pandemic state, following the rapid spread of the virus and the high increase in infections that, to date, affected 265 million people worldwide [1,2,3]. Respiratory tract infections can be caused by other viruses, such as influenza and parainfluenza viruses, responsible for the frequent annual outbreaks with high morbidity rates as reported by the WHO and CDC: about

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