Histidine-rich Modification of a Scorpion-derived Peptide Improves Bioavailability and Inhibitory Activity against HSV-1

Zeng, Zhengyang; Zhang, Runhong; Hong, Wei; Cheng, Yuting; Wang, Huijuan; Lang, Yange; Ji, Zhenglin; Wu, Yingliang; Li, Wenxin; Xie, Youli; Cao, Zhijian

Human erythrocytes were obtained from fresh human blood by centrifugation for 10 min at 1000 × g and washed three times with HEPES buffer. The erythrocytes were then resuspended in normal saline and seeded in 96-well plates (10 7 cells per well). The peptides were added in a series of concentrations, 0.1% triton-X100 was used as a positive control and normal saline was used as a negative control. After the plates were incubated at 37 ℃ for 1 h, the supernatants were collected by centrifugation at 1000 × g for 10 min. The absorbance of hemoglobin at a wavelength of 570 nm was measured using a microplate reader (BioTek, Winooski, VT, USA). The hemolysis assay was approved by the Medical Ethical Committee at Wuhan University.