Antiviral therapeutic approaches for human rhinovirus infections

Casanova, Victor; Sousa, Filipa H; Stevens, Craig; Barlow, Peter G

HDPs can be expressed by leukocytes and epithelial cells, while being relatively unaffected by modern drug resistance mechanisms [69] . In addition to their powerful direct antiviral and antibacterial activity, it has also been demonstrated that these peptides possess immunomodulatory and inflammomodulatory activity and they can future science group www.futuremedicine.com alter host cellular responses to viral infection [70] . As such, HDPs represent an exciting opportunity for naturally occurring or synthetic peptide derivatives to be used as novel therapeutic approaches for viral infection [71] . Cathelicidins are a well characterized family of HDPs with some of the most powerful antimicrobial and immunomodulatory activities. Cathelicidins are a highly conserved family of peptides found in a number of species, and represent one of the primary effector defense molecules against invading microorganisms. The sole human cathelicidin, human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide of 18 kDA (hCAP18), from which the active form, LL-37, is proteolytically cleaved, is primarily stored in the specific granules of neutrophils and cleaved into the active form by proteinase-3. LL-37 can also be produced and secreted by macrophages, lymphocytes and epithelial cells [72] .