Journal of Marine Science: Research & Development
Open Access

Research Article

Poly-γ-Glutamic Acid from Bacillus Horneckiae Strain APA of Shallow Marine Vent Origin with Antiviral and Immunomodulatory Effects against Herpes Simplex Virus Type-2.

¹Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (C.N.R.), Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry (I.C.B.), Via Campi Flegrei 34, 80078 Pozzuoli, (Na), Italy

²Research Centre for Extreme Environments and Extremophiles, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, V. le F. Stagno d’Alcontres 31, 98166 Messina, Italy

³Department of Human Pathology, Unit of Microbiology, Policlinico Universitario “G. Martino”, Via Consolare Valeria, 98125 Messina, Italy

*Corresponding Author:

Barbara Nicolaus
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (C.N.R.)
Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry (I.C.B.)
Via Campi Flegrei 34, 80078 Pozzuoli, (Na), Italy
Tel: +390818675245
Fax: +390818041770
E-mail: bnicolaus@icb.cnr.it

Received date: September 22, 2015; Accepted date: November 20, 2015; Published date: November 25, 2015

Citation: Poli A, Gugliandolo C, Spanò A, Taurisano V, Donato PD, et al. (2015) Poly-γ-Glutamic Acid from Bacillus Horneckiae Strain APA of Shallow Marine Vent Origin with Antiviral and Immunomodulatory Effects against Herpes Simplex Virus Type-2. J Marine Sci Res Dev 5:173. doi:10.4172/2155-9910.1000173

Copyright: © 2015 Poli A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

The shallow vents of the Eolian Islands (Italy) are sources of almost unexplored microorganisms able to produce biomolecules with promising pharmaceutical applications. This work describes the characterization of an extracellular poly-γ-glutamic acid (γ-PGA) from the new Bacillus horneckiae strain APA, and its antiviral and immunomodulatory effects against Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2). The γ-PGA-APA was able to hinder HSV-2 replication in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), involving the cell-mediated immunity. The exopolymer induced the expression of high levels of Th1–type cytokines in PBMC, while it had no effects on Th2-type cytokines production. This is the first report on a γ-PGA produced by a marine thermotolerant B. horneckiae strain with antiviral and immunomodulator activities. As stimulator of Th1 cell-mediated immunity, this biopolymer could be potentially used in the treatment of immunocompromised hosts as well as in patients affected by herpes virus infections.

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