The family Picornaviridae includes several viruses of great economic and medical importance. Poliovirus replicates in the human digestive tract, causing disease that may range in severity from a mild infection to a fatal paralysis. The human rhinovirus is the most important etiologic agent of the common cold in adults and children. Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) causes one of the most economically important diseases in cattle. These viruses have in common a capsid structure composed of 60 copies of four different proteins, VP1 to VP4, and their 3D structures show similar general features. In this study we describe the differences in stability against high pressure and cold denaturation of these viruses. Both poliovirus and rhinovirus are stable to high pressure at room temperature, because pressures up to 2.4 kbar are not enough to promote viral disassembly and inactivation. Within the same pressure range, FMDV particles are dramatically affected by pressure, with a loss of infectivity of more than 4 log units observed. The dissociation of polio and rhino viruses can be observed only under pressure (2.4 kbar) at low temperatures in the presence of subdenaturing concentrations of urea (1-2 M). The pressure and low temperature data reveal clear differences in stability among the three picornaviruses, FMDV being the most sensitive, polio being the most resistant, and rhino having intermediate stability. Whereas rhino and poliovirus differ little in stability (less than 10 kcal/mol at 0 degrees C), the difference in free energy between these two viruses and FMDV was remarkable (more than 200 kcal/mol of particle). These differences are crucial to understanding the different factors that control the assembly and disassembly of the virus particles during their life cycle. The inactivation of these viruses by pressure (combined or not with low temperature) has potential as a method for producing vaccines.

Mayaro virus (MAYV) is an arbovirus linked to several sporadic outbreaks of a highly debilitating febrile illness in many regions of South America. MAYV is on the verge of urbanization from the Amazon region and no effective antiviral intervention is available against human infections. Our aim was to investigate whether bovine lactoferrin (bLf), an iron-binding glycoprotein, could hinder MAYV infection. We show that bLf promotes a strong inhibition of virus infection with no cytotoxic effects. Monitoring the effect of bLf on different stages of infection, we observed that virus entry into the cell is the heavily compromised event. Moreover, we found that binding of bLf to the cell is highly dependent on the sulfation of glycosaminoglycans, suggesting that bLf impairs virus entry by blocking these molecules. Our findings highlight the antiviral potential of bLf and reveal an effective strategy against one of the major emerging human pathogens in the neotropics.

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Conflict of Interest Statement: The authors state that there are no financial and personal conflicts of interest that could have inappropriately influenced their work.

The present study evaluated the antimicrobial in vitro effects of the salivary proteins lactoferrin and lysozyme on microorganisms involved in the carious process, obtaining their minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). Streptococcus mutans (ATCC 25175) and Lactobacillus casei (ATCC 7469) were submitted to broth macrodilution of lysozyme at 80 mg/mL and lactoferrin at 200 mg/mL. The tubes were read in a spectrophotometer after they had been incubated at 37 °C for 18 h, in a carbon dioxide chamber, in order to read the MIC. A new subculture was carried on agar plates to obtain the MBC. The agar diffusion method was also tested, using BHI agar with 100 µL of the standardized microbial inocula. Filter-paper disks soaked in 10 µL of the solutions lactoferrin (200 µg/mL) and lysozyme (80 µg/mL) were placed on the agar surface. Inhibition halos were not observed on the plates, showing the absence of the antimicrobial effects of these proteins in this method. The bactericidal and bacteriostatic effects of lysozyme on L. casei were 50.3 mg/mL and 43.1 mg/mL respectively. The bactericidal and bacteriostatic effects on S. mutans were 68.5 mg/mL and 58.7 mg/mL. Lactoferrin did not induce any inhibitory effects on any microorganism, even in the concentration of 200 mg/mL. There was not a synergic antimicrobial effect of proteins, when they were tested together, even in the concentration of 42.8 mg/mL of lysozyme and 114 mg/mL of lactoferrin (the highest values evaluated). S. mutans and L. casei were only inhibited by lysozyme, not affected by lactoferrin and by the synergic use of both proteins.