Human cathelicidin, LL-37, inhibits respiratory syncytial virus infection in polarized airway epithelial cells

Details

• Alternative Title:
  BMC Res Notes
• Personal Author:
  Harcourt, Jennifer L. ; McDonald, Melissa ; Svoboda, Pavel ; Pohl, Jan ; Tatti, Kathleen ; Haynes, Lia M.
• Description:
  Background
  
  Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of severe lower respiratory tract illness in young children worldwide. Treatment options for severe RSV disease remain limited and the development of therapeutic treatment strategies remains a priority. LL-37, a small cationic host defense peptide involved in anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial responses, reduces replication of or infection by multiple viruses, including influenza virus, in vitro, and protects against lethal challenge with influenza virus in vivo. LL-37 also protects against RSV infection of HEp-2 cells in vitro; however, HEp-2 are not reflective of polarized airway epithelial cells and respond differently to RSV infection. An air–liquid interface (ALI) Calu-3 model that more closely mimics the human airway epithelium was established. Using this in vitro model, the effectiveness of LL-37 in preventing RSV infection and replication was examined.
  
  Results
  
  LL-37, when pre-incubated with virus prior to RSV infection (prophylactic), significantly reduced the level of viral genome detected in infected Calu-3 cells, and decreased chemokine expression associated with RSV infection in vitro. In contrast, therapeutic treatment of RSV-infected ALI Calu-3 at 24 h and 3 days post-infection had minimal impact on RSV infection.
  
  Conclusions
  
  Differences in the efficacy of LL-37 at reducing RSV infection under prophylactic and therapeutic conditions may in part be ascribed to differences in the method of peptide exposure. However, the efficacy of LL-37 at reducing RSV infection under prophylactic conditions indicates that further studies examining the efficacy of LL-37 as a small peptide inhibitor of RSV are warranted.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Air–liquid Interface Calu-3 Cathelicidin LL-37 Respiratory Syncytial Virus Short Report
• Source:
  BMC Res Notes. 9.
• Pubmed ID:
  26732674
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4700635
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Volume:
  9
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:7c2589ffe9a3535e5b6e1c66a811e2d20660e733ad29a922b688ffc5b0e48d53
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/37736/cdc_37736_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 849.12 KB ]