Inactivation of viruses infecting ectothermic animals by amphibian and piscine antimicrobial peptides

Abstract

The ability of five purified amphibian antimicrobial peptides (dermaseptin-1, temporin A, magainin I, and II, PGLa), crude peptide fractions isolated from the skin of Rana pipiens and R. catesbeiana, and four antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) from hybrid striped bass (piscidin-1N, -1H, -2, and -3) were examined for their ability to reduce the infectivity of channel catfish virus (CCV) and frog virus 3 (FV3). All compounds, with the exception of magainin I, markedly reduced the infectivity of CCV. In contrast to CCV, FV3 was 2- to 4-fold less sensitive to these agents. Similar to an earlier study employing two other amphibian peptides, the agents used here acted rapidly and over a wide, physiologically relevant, temperature range to reduce virus infectivity. These results extend our previous findings and strongly suggest that various amphibian and piscine AMPs may play important roles in protecting fish and amphibians from pathogenic viruses.

Ranavirus Ecology and Evolution: From Epidemiology to Extinction

“…Viral mRNA is detectable in the intestines of larval and adult African clawed frogs ( Xenopus laevis ) as early as 3 h after exposure to virus in water and then spreads to other tissues, suggesting that the intestines are a primary point of entry of waterborne virus in amphibians (Robert et al 2011 ). The skin may not be a common site of infection in metamorphosed amphibians because they secrete antimicrobial peptides on their skin, which can inactivate several types of pathogens, including FV3 and ATV (Chinchar et al , 2004Sheafor et al 2008 ; Rollins-Smith 2009 ). Brunner et al ( 2007 ), however, demonstrated that a 1 s skinto-skin contact out of water was suffi cient for transmission of ATV from infected, symptomatic tiger salamander larvae to uninfected larvae, so entry through the epithelium is possible at least during the larval stage.…”

An Overview of the Immunological Defenses in Fish Skin

“…Mucus performs a variety of functions (besides inhibition of the invasion and proliferation of pathogenic microorganism) including ion regulation, osmoregulation, lubrication [8,65,81,100], and parenteral care behaviour [101]. The antimicrobial property of epidermal mucus against infectious pathogens (bacteria and viruses) has been demonstrated in different fish species [8,84,[102][103][104][105], and increased expression of one or more of the above-mentioned antimicrobial components in fish epidermal mucus has been observed following microbial stress [106,107], thus supporting the role of epidermal mucus in protecting fishes from infectious pathogens.…”

Fungicidal Effect of Piscidin on Candida albicans: Pore Formation in Lipid Vesicles and Activity in Fungal Membranes

“…chrysops). [12][13][14] Piscidin is a 22-residue peptide with a highly conserved amino-terminus rich in histidine and phenylalanine. Piscidins are composed of piscidin 1 (P1), 2 (P2), and 3 (P3), and these peptides play important roles in the natural innate immune system of fish.…”

“…Piscidins have broad-spectrum activities against yeast, filamentous fungi, viruses, and bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria and of all piscidins, P1 has the highest biological activity, while P3 has the lowest. 13,14) Also, its mechanism of action against bacteria was defined as that piscidin is more likely to permeabilize the membrane by toroidal pore formation rather than via the "barrel-stave" mechanism. 15) However, their exact mode of fungicidal action remains unknown.…”