Ultrashort Antiviral Hydrophobic Peptides Targeting Both Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron XBB Variant and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)

Due to the continual emergence of viral respiratory variants, there is a stronger desire now more than ever to design new more effective vaccines and therapies. Herein, for this reason, we synthesized two hydrophobic peptides, FFWW and FWWW, using Fmoc solid phase synthesis to attach to and passivate two current problematic respiratory viruses: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron XBB Variant and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). The structures of the peptides were confirmed using H NMR and LC-MS. Results demonstrated that both peptides passivated both viruses after just 15 minutes of incubation. Results further showed the ability of FFWW to passivate both a pseudovirus of SARS-CoV-2 and RSV better than FWWW suggesting that the extra ring of the Try in FWWW does not add any value towards virus passivation. Most importantly, results indicated that FFWW should be further studied for numerous anti-viral applications (from peptide anti-viral therapies to sensors that can detect ambient virus amounts).