Venom peptides as inhibitory agents against flaviviral proteases

Due to the lack of vaccines and effective therapies, infectious diseases caused by members of the Flaviviridae family pose a major healthcare concern worldwide. The nonstructural protein 3(NS3) is multifunctional, with serine protease activity in its N-terminal domain, RNA triphosphatase and helica...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cai, Maggie Weiling
Other Authors: School of Biological Sciences
Format: Final Year Project (FYP)
Language:English
Published: 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/45102
_version_ 1811689807592554496
author Cai, Maggie Weiling
author2 School of Biological Sciences
author_facet School of Biological Sciences
Cai, Maggie Weiling
author_sort Cai, Maggie Weiling
collection NTU
description Due to the lack of vaccines and effective therapies, infectious diseases caused by members of the Flaviviridae family pose a major healthcare concern worldwide. The nonstructural protein 3(NS3) is multifunctional, with serine protease activity in its N-terminal domain, RNA triphosphatase and helicase activity in its C-terminal domain. With its pivotal roles in flavivirus replication, i.e. viral polyprotein processing and RNA replication, NS3 is an attractive target for antiviral therapeutics development. Previously, venom secreted phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) has been implicated with potential anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) activity. Hence to evaluate the potential inhibitory actions of nine synthetic peptides, designed based on snake venom sPLA2, four experimental approaches, namely, in vitro biochemical protease assays, in vivo cell-based assays, biophysical surface plasmon resonance and protein crystallization, were employed in this study. All nine peptides exhibit good inhibition against flaviviral proteases in biochemical assays. For in vivo studies, low degree of inhibition was observed in peptides treated cells. This was however expected, probably due to limited cellular entry resulting from the large size and highly hydrophilic nature of the peptides. Importantly, these peptides exert no cytotoxicity up to at least 30μM. Although shown to have limited inhibitory actions against flaviviral proteases in vivo, it is important that these peptides exert no cytotoxicity, hence suggesting for the potential of these peptides to emerge as the next-generation antiviral therapeutics.
first_indexed 2024-10-01T05:53:58Z
format Final Year Project (FYP)
id ntu-10356/45102
institution Nanyang Technological University
language English
last_indexed 2024-10-01T05:53:58Z
publishDate 2011
record_format dspace
spelling ntu-10356/451022023-02-28T18:06:09Z Venom peptides as inhibitory agents against flaviviral proteases Cai, Maggie Weiling School of Biological Sciences Duke-NUS Medical School Subhash Vasudevan Danny Doan DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Microbiology::Virology Due to the lack of vaccines and effective therapies, infectious diseases caused by members of the Flaviviridae family pose a major healthcare concern worldwide. The nonstructural protein 3(NS3) is multifunctional, with serine protease activity in its N-terminal domain, RNA triphosphatase and helicase activity in its C-terminal domain. With its pivotal roles in flavivirus replication, i.e. viral polyprotein processing and RNA replication, NS3 is an attractive target for antiviral therapeutics development. Previously, venom secreted phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) has been implicated with potential anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) activity. Hence to evaluate the potential inhibitory actions of nine synthetic peptides, designed based on snake venom sPLA2, four experimental approaches, namely, in vitro biochemical protease assays, in vivo cell-based assays, biophysical surface plasmon resonance and protein crystallization, were employed in this study. All nine peptides exhibit good inhibition against flaviviral proteases in biochemical assays. For in vivo studies, low degree of inhibition was observed in peptides treated cells. This was however expected, probably due to limited cellular entry resulting from the large size and highly hydrophilic nature of the peptides. Importantly, these peptides exert no cytotoxicity up to at least 30μM. Although shown to have limited inhibitory actions against flaviviral proteases in vivo, it is important that these peptides exert no cytotoxicity, hence suggesting for the potential of these peptides to emerge as the next-generation antiviral therapeutics. Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences 2011-06-09T02:47:59Z 2011-06-09T02:47:59Z 2011 2011 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/45102 en Nanyang Technological University 44 p. application/pdf
spellingShingle DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Microbiology::Virology
Cai, Maggie Weiling
Venom peptides as inhibitory agents against flaviviral proteases
title Venom peptides as inhibitory agents against flaviviral proteases
title_full Venom peptides as inhibitory agents against flaviviral proteases
title_fullStr Venom peptides as inhibitory agents against flaviviral proteases
title_full_unstemmed Venom peptides as inhibitory agents against flaviviral proteases
title_short Venom peptides as inhibitory agents against flaviviral proteases
title_sort venom peptides as inhibitory agents against flaviviral proteases
topic DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Microbiology::Virology
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/45102
work_keys_str_mv AT caimaggieweiling venompeptidesasinhibitoryagentsagainstflaviviralproteases