ROLYVALENT MULTIMERIC COMPOSITIONS CONTAINING ACTIVE POLYPEPTIDES, PHARMACEUTICAL COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS OF USING THE SAME

摘要

The invention is directed to compositions comprising polyvalent complexes containing a biocompatible polymer backbone to which is attached a plurality of monomeric anti-microbial peptides and to methods for using such complexes to stabilize anti-microbial peptides for treating or preventing a disease or condition resulting from infection with a microbe. Multivalent derivatives of existing antimicrobial peptides in which several peptides are covalently linked have been investigated. The resulting construct may contain up to 30 or more units, and exhibits a significant enhancement of anti-microbial effect relative to the free peptides: on the order of a ten fold improvement in effectiveness, suggesting that higher multimerization can indeed lead to more effective agents. The invention is also directed to the use of such complexes for delivery of anti-viral peptides, in particular, peptides and peptide fragments obtained from salivary agglutinin protein (gp-340 ) for use in treating or preventing infection with HTV.