Antiviral activity of silymarin against chikungunya virus
Lani, R Hassandarvish, P Chiam, CW Moghaddam, E CHU JANG HANN Rausalu, K Merits, A Higgs, S Vanlandingham, D Abu Bakar, S
Lani, R
Hassandarvish, P
Chiam, CW
Moghaddam, E
Rausalu, K
Merits, A
Higgs, S
Vanlandingham, D
Abu Bakar, S
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Alternative Title
Abstract
The mosquito-borne chikungunya virus (CHIKV) causes chikungunya fever, with clinical presentations such as severe back and small joint pain, and debilitating arthritis associated with crippling pains that persist for weeks and even years. Although there are several studies to evaluate the efficacy of drugs against CHIKV, the treatment for chikungunya fever is mainly symptom-based and no effective licensed vaccine or antiviral are available. Here, we investigated the antiviral activity of three types of flavonoids against CHIKV in vitro replication. Three compounds: silymarin, quercetin and kaempferol were evaluated for their in vitro antiviral activities against CHIKV using a CHIKV replicon cell line and clinical isolate of CHIKV of Central/East African genotype. A cytopathic effect inhibition assay was used to determine their activities on CHIKV viral replication and quantitative reverse transcription PCR was used to calculate virus yield. Antiviral activity of effective compound was further investigated by evaluation of CHIKV protein expression using western blotting for CHIKV nsP<inf>1</inf>, nsP<inf>3</inf>, and E<inf>2</inf>E<inf>1</inf> proteins. Briefly, silymarin exhibited significant antiviral activity against CHIKV, reducing both CHIKV replication efficiency and down-regulating production of viral proteins involved in replication. This study may have important consequence for broaden the chance of getting the effective antiviral for CHIKV infection.
Keywords
Animals, Antiviral Agents, Cell Line, Chikungunya virus, Chlorocebus aethiops, Cricetulus, Dose-Response Relationship, Drug, Epithelial Cells, Kaempferols, Quercetin, RNA, Viral, Silybin, Silymarin, Vero Cells, Viral Load, Virus Replication
Source Title
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Series/Report No.
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Date
2015-06-16
DOI
10.1038/srep11421
Type
Article