RESUMO
In addition to their well-known antibacterial activity some antimicrobial peptides and proteins (AMPs) display also antiviral effects. A 27 aa peptide from the N-terminal part of human bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI) previously shown to harbour antibacterial activity inhibits the infectivity of multiple Influenza A virus strains (H1N1, H3N2 and H5N1) the causing agent of the Influenza pneumonia. In contrast, the homologous murine BPI-peptide did not show activity against Influenza A virus. In addition human BPI-peptide inhibits the activation of immune cells mediated by Influenza A virus. By changing the human BPI-peptide to the sequence of the mouse homologous peptide the antiviral activity was completely abolished. Furthermore, the human BPI-peptide also inhibited the pathogenicity of the Vesicular Stomatitis Virus but failed to interfere with HIV and measles virus. Electron microscopy indicate that the human BPI-peptide interferes with the virus envelope and at high concentrations was able to destroy the particles completely.
Assuntos
Peptídeos Catiônicos Antimicrobianos/farmacologia , Antivirais/farmacologia , Proteínas Sanguíneas/farmacologia , Vírus da Influenza A/efeitos dos fármacos , Vírus da Influenza A/patogenicidade , Animais , Peptídeos Catiônicos Antimicrobianos/metabolismo , Antivirais/metabolismo , Proteínas Sanguíneas/metabolismo , Células Cultivadas , Cricetinae , Cães , Humanos , Vírus da Influenza A Subtipo H1N1/efeitos dos fármacos , Vírus da Influenza A Subtipo H1N1/patogenicidade , Vírus da Influenza A Subtipo H3N2/efeitos dos fármacos , Vírus da Influenza A Subtipo H3N2/patogenicidade , Virus da Influenza A Subtipo H5N1/efeitos dos fármacos , Virus da Influenza A Subtipo H5N1/patogenicidade , Células Madin Darby de Rim Canino , Neutrófilos/metabolismo , Fragmentos de Peptídeos/farmacologia , Replicação Viral/efeitos dos fármacosRESUMO
DNA vaccines are potential tools for the induction of immune responses against both infectious disease and cancer. The dermal application of DNA vaccines is of particular interest since the epidermal and dermal layers of the skin are characterized by an abundance of antigen-presenting cells (APCs). The aim of our study was to compare tumor protection as obtained by two different methods of intradermal DNA delivery (gene gun and jet injector) in a well-established HER2/neu mouse tumor model. BALB/c mice were immunized twice with a HER2/neu-coding plasmid by gene gun or jet injector. Mice were then subcutaneously challenged with HER2/neu(+) syngeneic D2F2/E2 tumor cells. Protection against subsequent challenges with tumor cells as well as humoral and T-cell immune responses induced by the vaccine were monitored. Gene gun immunization was far superior to jet injector both in terms of tumor protection and induction of HER2/neu-specific immune responses. After gene gun immunization, 60% of the mice remained tumor-free until day 140 as compared with 25% after jet injector immunization. Furthermore, gene gun vaccination was able to induce both a strong T(H)1-polarized T-cell response with detectable cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) activity and a humoral immune response against HER2/neu, whereas the jet injector was not. Although the disadvantages that were associated with the use of the jet injector in our model may be overcome with methodological modifications and/or in larger animals, which exhibit a thicker skin and/or subcutaneous muscle tissue, we conclude that gene gun delivery constitutes the method of choice for intradermal DNA delivery in preclinical mouse models and possibly also for the clinical development of DNA-based vaccines.
