| Description |
The HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to have a devastating impact on the lives of millions of people worldwide. Women are particularly more vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) due to various biological and socio-economical reasons. Microbicides are the preventive agents which can be applied intra-vaginally to protect the tissue from STIs. The failures of microbicide products such as carraguard, PRO-2000 and tenofovir have prompted to identify new and safe alternatives to these chemical/ detergent based microbicides. Antimicrobial proteins/ peptides are the key players in innate immunity and can be explored as an alternative for chemical based microbicides. Vaginal epithelial cells are constantly exposed to repertoire of microbes or their products causing secretion of various AMPs from epithelial cells and immune cells.
In the present study we have identified host defense molecules having antimicrobial activities from rabbit vaginal fluid (RVF) using various conventional protein purification approaches e.g. RP-HPLC, AU-PAGE. The proteins showing antimicrobial properties were identified using LC-MS. We have further studied the antimicrobial functions of a peptide derived from hemoglobin α subunit, one of the proteins identified in the antimicrobial fraction of RVF. The peptide, named RVFHbαP was designed using various tools in bioinformatics and its antimicrobial and anti-HIV properties were evaluated.
We have determined the mechanism of action of this peptide on microbes and commensals from vaginal milieu. Cytotoxic and Immunomodulatory activities of this peptide were analyzed using cervico-vaginal epithelial cells and immune cells in order to analyze its potential as a microbicide. In present seminar studies related to antimicrobial and immunomodulatory actions of RVFHbαP will be discussed.
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