The Role of Antimicrobial Peptides in Influenza Virus Infection and Their Potential as Antiviral and Immunomodulatory Therapy
Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Guangshun Wang
Pharmaceuticals 2016, 9(3), 53; https://doi.org/10.3390/ph9030053
Received: 28 June 2016
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Revised: 25 August 2016
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Accepted: 31 August 2016
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Published: 6 September 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antimicrobial Peptides: Expanded Activity Spectrum and Applications)
Influenza A virus (IAV) remains a major threat that can cause severe morbidity and mortality due to rapid genomic variation. Resistance of IAVs to current anti-IAV drugs has been emerging, and antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been considered to be potential candidates for novel treatment against IAV infection. AMPs are endogenous proteins playing important roles in host defense through direct antimicrobial and antiviral activities and through immunomodulatory effects. In this review, we will discuss the anti-IAV and immunomodulatory effects of classical AMPs (defensins and cathelicidins), and proteins more recently discovered to have AMP-like activity (histones and Alzheimer’s associated β-amyloid). We will discuss the interactions between AMPs and other host defense proteins. Major emphasis will be placed on novel synthetic AMPs derived from modification of natural proteins, and on potential methods of increasing expression of endogenous AMPs, since these approaches may lead to novel antiviral therapeutics.
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Keywords:
cathelicidin; defensin; LL-37; histone; amyloid
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Hsieh, I.-N.; Hartshorn, K.L. The Role of Antimicrobial Peptides in Influenza Virus Infection and Their Potential as Antiviral and Immunomodulatory Therapy. Pharmaceuticals 2016, 9, 53. https://doi.org/10.3390/ph9030053
AMA Style
Hsieh I-N, Hartshorn KL. The Role of Antimicrobial Peptides in Influenza Virus Infection and Their Potential as Antiviral and Immunomodulatory Therapy. Pharmaceuticals. 2016; 9(3):53. https://doi.org/10.3390/ph9030053
Chicago/Turabian StyleHsieh, I-Ni, and Kevan L. Hartshorn. 2016. "The Role of Antimicrobial Peptides in Influenza Virus Infection and Their Potential as Antiviral and Immunomodulatory Therapy" Pharmaceuticals 9, no. 3: 53. https://doi.org/10.3390/ph9030053
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