Peptides Protect Against CHIKV Infection

The protective effect of the peptides against CHIKV infection was evaluated as previously described [55 (link)]. BHK-21 and Huh-7 cells (1 × 10⁴ per well) were seeded in 96-well white culture plates (Greiner Bio-One, Americana, SP, Brazil). After 24 h, the cells were treated with peptides at the MNTC for 1 h at 37 °C. Then, the supernatant was removed, each well of the plate was washed twice with PBS, and the virus at an MOI of 0.1 was added to the cells and incubated for 1 h at 37 °C. After that, cells were washed twice with PBS again, and DMEM (Cultilab, Campinas, SP, BR) supplemented with 2% FBS (Gibco—Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) was added to the cells. The plate was incubated at 37 °C, and the protective effect against CHIKV infection was evaluated at 16 h.p.i. by measurement of NLuc activity.