Defensins' offensive play: exploiting a viral achilles' heel.
Vertebrates rely on antimicrobial peptides as a front-line defense against invading pathogens. Certain cationic antimicrobial peptides, such as human alpha-defensins, have traditionally been thought to destroy invading microbes by disrupting their lipid membranes. In this issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Smith and Nemerow reveal that alpha-defensins can inactivate adenoviruses, which lack lipid membranes, through direct binding of the defensin to the virus's naked protein shell.
Buck
Christopher B
CB
Laboratory of Cellular Oncology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892-4263, USA. buckc@nih.gov
D000256:Adenoviridae / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002213:Capsid / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D023084:alpha-Defensins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*
D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; C500225:DEFA5 protein, human; D023084:alpha-Defensins; C406413:human neutrophil peptide 1