In addition to antibodies and white blood cells, the immune system deploys peptides to fight viruses and other pathogens. These peptides do not last long in the body, and scientists are now reporting success in using mimics known as peptoids to treat animals with herpes virus infections. These small molecules could one day cure or prevent many types of infections, including COVID19.
As reported by Dr. Annelise Barron, at a meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), “in the body, antimicrobial peptides such as LL-37 help keep viruses, bacteria, fungi, cancer cells and even parasites… But peptides are rapidly eliminated by enzymes, so they are not ideal drug candidates ”.
Peptides were created in 1992 for the first time
Instead, she and the researchers emulated the key biophysical attributes of LL-37 in smaller, more stable molecules called peptoids, stating that “peptoids are easy to manufacture and, unlike peptides, are not rapidly degraded by enzymes, so they could use a much lower dose. “
The peptides were first created in 1992 by Dr. Ronald Zuckermann of Chiron Corp., who later served as Barron’s postdoctoral adviser. Unlike other types of peptides that require painstaking multi-step organic chemistry to produce, peptoids are simple and inexpensive to manufacture with an automated synthesizer and readily available chemicals.
Barron, Zuckermann, Dr. Gill Diamond of the University of Louisville and others founded Maxwell Biosciences to develop peptoids as clinical candidates to prevent or treat viral infections. They recently reported the results of their new peptoid sequences, designed to be less toxic to people than previous versions.
Compounds inactivated SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID19
In laboratories, the compounds inactivated SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID19, and herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1), which causes cold sores, rendering the viruses unable to infect cultured human cells. Now, researchers are reporting in vivo results, showing that peptoids safely prevent herpes infections in mice when applied to the lips.
The researchers are also preparing to test the activity of peptoids against SARS-CoV-2 in mice. As Barron explained, “COVID19 infection affects the whole body, once someone is really sick, so we will do this test intravenously, in addition to studying the administration in the lungs”