Journal
FEMS MICROBIOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 288, Issue 1, Pages 1-8Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2008.01340.x
Keywords
antibiobodies; killer peptides; killer toxins; microbicidal antibodies; microbicidal peptides
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Funding
- Istituto Superiore di Sanita
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Antibiobodies are paradigmatic of yeast killer toxin (KT)-like antibodies (KAbs) mimicking the antimicrobial activity of KTs in the frame of the yeast killer phenomenon. Polyclonal, monoclonal and recombinant anti-idiotypic antibiobodies (anti-idiotypic KAbs), internal images of a wide-spectrum KT produced by the yeast Pichia anomala (PaKT), have been produced by immunization with the idiotype of a PaKT-neutralizing monoclonal antibody. Anti-idiotypic KAbs showed microbicidal activity against eukaryotic and prokaryotic pathogenic agents through the interaction with specific KT receptors (KTRs), putatively constituted by beta-glucans. Natural KAbs have been found in animals and humans experimentally or naturally infected by KTR-bearing microorganisms. Recombinant KAb-derived synthetic killer peptides showed further antiviral and immunomodulatory activities. The perspectives of KAbs and killer peptides as potential sources of novel therapeutic agents, and of KTRs and idiotypes as vaccines against infectious diseases are discussed.
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