Human lactoferrin-derived peptides with broad spectrum antiviral activity

Infections with Hepatitis B (HBV) and C viruses (HCV) are major public health threats with more than 400 million individuals being affected worldwide. Romania has a high prevalence of chronic infections, above the average of EU countries. Chronic patients are at high risk of developing end-stage liver diseases or hepatocarcinoma, and about 1 million people die annually due to such liver complications. Infections with the ubiquitous human pathogens Herpes simplex viruses (HSV) and the highly variable RNA viruses, Human adenovirus 5 (Ad5), Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), Enteric cytopathic human orphan 30 (ECHO subtype 30), Measles virus (MeV) also result in severe symptoms which require prolonged treatment.
A major drawback of the current antiviral therapies is the very high cost, which makes them unaffordable for many health care systems in developing countries.
Lactoferrin (Lf), an immunomodulatory glycoprotein was shown to interfere with the life-cycles of many viruses, regardless their origin or structure, both, in vitro and in vivo. In most cases, Lf was demonstrated to exert its antiviral effect at an early step of viral infection due to the crucial presence of cationic clusters in its structure. Recently, our group has rationally designed and characterized the anti-HBV activity of an Lf-derived peptide containing one of the cationic clusters. The peptide has better properties than the parental protein which could overcome the limitation for Lf use in clinical application. Thus, the major goal of this project is to take our initial observation further and investigate Lf-derived peptide(s) with increased solubility and efficient anti-viral action against a broad-range of human viruses, considering the pathogens listed above as  models.
This project will prove the concept that the development of non-toxic, small Lf-derived molecule(s) with a broad-spectrum anti-viral activity may constitute a valuable, cheaper alternative to the current standard of care.