Chemical synthesis and in vitro evaluation of a phage display-derived peptide active against infectious salmon anemia virus

Infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV) is the etiological agent of the disease by the same name and causes major losses in the salmon industry worldwide. Epizootic ISAV outbreaks have occurred in Norway and, to a lesser degree, in Canada. In 2007, an ISAV outbreak in Chile destroyed most of the seasonal production and endangered the entire Chilean salmon industry. None of the existing prophylactic approaches have demonstrated efficacy in providing absolute protection from or even a palliative effect on ISAV proliferation. Sanitary control measures for ISAV, based on molecular epidemiology data, have proven insufficient, mainly due to high salmon culture densities and a constant presence of a nonpathogenic strain of the virus. This report describes an alternative treatment approach based on interfering peptides selected from a phage display library. The screening of a phage display heptapeptide library resulted in the selection of a novel peptide with significant in vitro antiviral activity against ISAV. This peptide specifically interacted with the viral hemagglutinin-esterase protein, thereby impairing virus binding, with plaque reduction assays showing a significant reduction in viral yields. The identified peptide acts at micromolar concentrations against at least two different pathogenic strains of the virus, without detectable cytotoxic effects on the tested fish cells. Therefore, antiviral peptides represent a novel alternative for controlling ISAV and, potentially, other fish pathogens.