Exploring the Efficacy of Peptides and Mimics against Influenza A Virus, Adenovirus, and Murine Norovirus.

The ongoing battle against viral pandemics continues, with the possibility of future outbreaks. The search for effective antiviral compounds that can combat a diverse range of viruses continues to be a focal point of research. This study investigated the efficacy of two natural antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) (lactoferricin and LL-37), two synthetic AMPs (melimine and Mel4), and nine AMP mimics (758, 1091, 1096, 1083, 610, NAPL, 3-BIPL, 4-BIPL, and Sau-22) against influenza A virus strains H1N1 and H3N2, human adenovirus 5 (HAdV-5), and murine norovirus 1 (MNV-1). These compounds were tested using virus pre-treatment, cell pre-treatment, or post-cell entry treatment assays, electron microscopy, and circular dichroism (CD), alongside evaluations of cytotoxicity against the host cells. After virus pre-treatment, the AMP mimics 610 and Sau-22 had relatively low IC ₅₀ values for influenza strains H1N1 (2.35 and 6.93 µM, respectively) and H3N2 (3.7 and 5.34 µM, respectively). Conversely, natural and synthetic AMPs were not active against these strains. For the non-enveloped viruses, the AMP Mel4 and mimic 1083 had moderate activity against HAdV-5 (Mel4 IC ₅₀ = 47.4 µM; 1083 IC ₅₀ = 47.2 µM), whereas all AMPs, but none of the mimics, were active against norovirus (LL-37 IC ₅₀ = 4.2 µM; lactoferricin IC ₅₀ = 23.18 µM; melimine IC ₅₀ = 4.8 µM; Mel4 IC ₅₀ = 8.6 µM). Transmission electron microscopy demonstrated that the mimics targeted the outer envelope of influenza viruses, while the AMPs targeted the capsid of non-enveloped viruses. CD showed that Mel4 adopted an α-helical structure in a membrane mimetic environment, but mimic 758 remained unstructured. The diverse activity against different virus groups is probably influenced by charge, hydrophobicity, size, and, in the case of natural and synthetic AMPs, their secondary structure. These findings underscore the potential of peptides and mimics as promising candidates for antiviral therapeutics against both enveloped and non-enveloped viruses.