Wang Jingjing, Ji Mengyao, Yuan Bingqian, Luo Anna, Jiang Zhenyuan, Zhu Tengyu, Liu Yang, Kamau Peter Muiruri, Jin Lin, Lai Ren
School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences/Key Laboratory of Bioactive Peptides of Yunnan Province, KIZ-CUHK Joint Laboratory of Bioresources and Molecular Research in Common Diseases, National Resource Center for Non-Human Primates, Kunming Primate Research Center, National Research Facility for Phenotypic & Genetic Analysis of Model Animals (Primate Facility), Sino-African Joint Research Center, and Engineering Laboratory of Peptides, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.
Front Microbiol. 2021 Dec 3;12:778309. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.778309. eCollection 2021.
African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a large double-stranded DNA virus and causes high mortality in swine. ASFV can be transmitted by biological vectors, including soft ticks in genus but not hard ticks. However, the underlying mechanisms evolved in the vectorial capacity of soft ticks are not well-understood. Here, we found that a defensin-like peptide toxin OPTX-1 identified from inhibits the enzyme activity of the ASFV pS273R protease with a =0.821±0.526μM and shows inhibitory activity on the replication of ASFV. The analogs of OPTX-1 from hard ticks show more inhibitory efficient on pS273R protease. Considering that ticks are blood-sucking animals, we tested the effects of OPTX-1 and its analogs on the coagulation system. At last, top 3D structures represented surface analyses of the binding sites of pS273R with different inhibitors that were obtained by molecular docking based on known structural information. In summary, our study provides evidence that different inhibitory efficiencies between soft tick-derived OPTX-1 and hard tick-derived defensin-like peptides may determine the vector and reservoir competence of ticks.
非洲猪瘟病毒（ASFV）是一种大型双链DNA病毒，可导致猪的高死亡率。ASFV可通过生物媒介传播，包括 属的软蜱，但不包括硬蜱。然而，软蜱传播能力进化的潜在机制尚不清楚。在这里，我们发现从 中鉴定出的一种防御素样肽毒素OPTX-1以 =0.821±0.526μM的浓度抑制ASFV pS273R蛋白酶的酶活性，并对ASFV的复制表现出抑制活性。来自硬蜱的OPTX-1类似物对pS273R蛋白酶表现出更高的抑制效率。考虑到蜱是吸血动物，我们测试了OPTX-1及其类似物对凝血系统的影响。最后，基于已知结构信息通过分子对接获得了pS273R与不同抑制剂结合位点的前3D结构表面分析。总之，我们的研究提供了证据，表明软蜱来源的OPTX-1和硬蜱来源的防御素样肽之间不同的抑制效率可能决定了蜱的传播和储存能力。
