Synthetic Peptides as a Promising Alternative to Control Viral Infections in Atlantic Salmon

Abstract

Viral infections in salmonids represent an ongoing challenge for the aquaculture industry. Two RNA viruses, the infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) and the infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV), have become a latent risk without healing therapies available for either. In this context, antiviral peptides emerge as effective and relatively safe therapeutic molecules. Based on in silico analysis of VP2 protein from IPNV and the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase from ISAV, a set of peptides was designed and were chemically synthesized to block selected key events in their corresponding infectivity processes. The peptides were tested in fish cell lines in vitro, and four were selected for decreasing the viral load: peptide GIM182 for IPNV, and peptides GIM535, GIM538 and GIM539 for ISAV. In vivo tests with the IPNV GIM 182 peptide were carried out using Salmo salar fish, showing a significant decrease of viral load, and proving the safety of the peptide for fish. The results indicate that the use of peptides as antiviral agents in disease control might be a viable alternative to explore in aquaculture.

A review on the recent advances and application of vaccines against fish pathogens in aquaculture

“…A study was conducted by Cárdenas et al ( 2020 ) on synthetic peptides as a potent antiviral agent and also as an alternative for controlling the viral infections in Atlantic salmons. The peptides from both RNA viruses, infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV), and IPNV were designed based on in silico analysis and were later tested in vitro in the fish cell lines.…”

Immunomodulatory role of vasoactive intestinal peptide and ghrelin in Oncorhynchus mykiss

“…Prophylactic and therapeutic strategies are limited, so these infections lead to production losses at the industrial level, which can also have environmental consequences such as antibiotic resistance [ 52 , 56 ]. Therefore, the study of immunomodulatory peptides appears to be an emerging prophylactic or therapeutic application in aquaculture, which could have application potential for reducing the incidence of infections [ [57] , [58] , [59] ]. Therefore, the neuropeptides ghrelin and VIP from rainbow trout are proposed as peptides with potential application as immunostimulants.…”

Construction of Attenuated Strains for Red-Spotted Grouper Nervous Necrosis Virus (RGNNV) via Reverse Genetic System

“…Many laboratories worldwide have been mainly devoted to the development of new vaccine approaches based on inactivated, subunit, and live attenuated vaccines to prevent viral diseases in aquaculture [44][45][46]. A previous study has tried start codon mutation of B2 for greasy grouper nervous necrosis virus (GGNNV), but failed to obtain an infectious GGNNV B2 mutant due to none virus detection for the first passage and reverse mutation of B2 start codon after five consecutive supernatant passages [9].…”