Theta-Defensins Inhibit High-Risk Human Papillomavirus Infection Through Charge-Driven Capsid Clustering.

ABSTRACT: Persistent infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) genotypes results in a large number of anogenital and head and neck cancers worldwide. Although prophylactic vaccination coverage has improved, there remains a need to develop methods that inhibit viral transmission toward preventing the spread of HPV-driven disease. Defensins are a class of innate immune effector peptides that function to protect hosts from infection by pathogens such as viruses and bacteria. Previous work utilizing ? and ? defensins from humans has demonstrated that the ?-defensin HD5 is effective at inhibiting the most common high-risk genotype, HPV16. A third class of defensin that has yet to be explored are ?-defensins: small, 18-amino acid cyclic peptides found in old-world monkeys whose unique structure makes them both highly cationic and resistant to degradation. Here we show that the prototype ?-defensin, rhesus theta defensin 1, inhibits hrHPV infection through a mechanism involving capsid clustering that inhibits virions from binding to cell surface receptor complexes.

SUBMITTER: Skeate JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7586039 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature