• Genomics & Informatics
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.33.1-33.17
• /
• 2022

Nervous necrosis virus (NNV) is a deadly infectious disease that affects several fish species. It has been found that the NNV utilizes grouper heat shock cognate protein 70 (GHSC70) to enter the host cell. Thus, blocking the virus entry by targeting the responsible protein can protect the fishes from disease. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the inhibitory potentiality of 70 compounds of Azadirachta indica (Neem plant) which has been reported to show potential antiviral activity against various pathogens, but activity against the NNV has not yet been reported. The binding affinity of 70 compounds was calculated against the GHSC70 with the docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation approaches. Both the docking and MD methods predict 4 (PubChem CID: 14492795, 10134, 5280863, and 11119228) inhibitory compounds that bind strongly with the GHSC70 protein with a binding affinity of -9.7, -9.5, -9.1, and -9.0 kcal/mol, respectively. Also, the ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity) properties of the compounds confirmed the drug-likeness properties. As a result of the investigation, it may be inferred that Neem plant compounds may act as significant inhibitors of viral entry into the host cell. More in-vitro testing is needed to establish their effectiveness.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
• /
• v.58 no.3
• /
• pp.153-158
• /
• 2018

Althaea rosea has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat numerous diseases, but no studies have investigated its anti-influenza properties to date. In this study, we investigated the anti-influenza effects of Althaea rosea. BALB/c mice orally pretreated with Althaea rosea ($200{\mu}L$, 0.1 mg/mL concentration in phosphate-buffered saline) and followed by infection of influenza A virus nasally showed higher survivability and lower lung virus titer against divergent subtypes of influenza A virus infection. We also found that oral administration of Althaea rosea elicited antiviral innate immune responses in serum, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, small intestinal fluid, and the lungs. Taken together, these findings suggest that aqueous extracts of Althaea rosea are a potential candidate for use as an anti-influenza drug.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.209-215
• /
• 2006

The mutability and frequency of genetic reassortment characteristic of rotavirus and resultant antigenic changes make the rotavirus formidable challenges for control efforts such as the vaccine development. An alternative approach to overcome these difficulties in development of the rotavirus vaccine is to develop effective inhibitors of the virus infection. As an effort to achieve this, effects of glycyrrhetinic acid (GA), which is an active component of glycyrrhizin, on MA-14 cell infection were examined by employing the human rotavirus isolated from Korea, K-21. The data obtained showed that MA-104 cell infection of the K-21 rotavirus was greatly influenced by the presence of both $18{\alpha}-Ga\;and\;18{\beta}-GA$. Both types of GA have inhibited more than 60% of the rotaviral infection at the concentration of 7.68mM. This inhibition effect became much more evident at the higher concentrations of GA. However, the type of GA did not make much differences on the inhibition effect of the drug. Although GA has to be used in high concentrations to exhibit anti-viral activity and to be virostatic, a long history of safe and high dose usage of licoriece in clinical settings in the Far East makes the GA as an attractive inhibitor of the rotaviral infection.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.8
• /
• pp.3657-3661
• /
• 2012

HBV infection is contagious and may be transmitted vertically or horizontally by blood products and body secretions. Over 50% of Iranian carriers have contracted the infection prenatally, making this the most likely route of transmission of HBV in Iran. This study assesses the resistance to Lamivudine in patients with chronic hepatitis B infection using a new ZNA probe Real Time PCR method. To evaluate the effectiveness of Lamivudine therapy for chronic hepatitis B infection, a study was conducted on 70 patients (63 men and 7women), who had received the drug first line. All patients were tested for the presence of HBsAg and HBeAg, the serum ALT level and the HBV DNA load before and after treatment. In all samples resistance to Lamivudine was tested with the ZNA Probe. Our results showed that ZNA Probe Real Time PCR method could detect wild type,YMDD, and its mutants, tyrosine-isoleucine-aspartate-aspartate and tyrosine-valine-aspartate-Aspartate. Among an estimated seventy patients with chronic hepatitis B infection, 18 (25.7%) were resistant to lamivudine. Only one patient was negative for presence of HBS-Ag (5.6%) and two patients were negative for HBe-Ag (11.1%). Real-time PCR with Zip nucleic acid probes is a sensitive, specific and rapid detection method for mutations in the YMDD motif, which will be essential for monitoring patients undergoing Lamivudine antiviral therapy.

• Natural Product Sciences
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.165-170
• /
• 2020

Carica papaya is a medicinal and fruit plant owing biological activities including antioxidant, antiviral, antibacterial and anticancer. The present study aims to investigate the acetyl (AChE) and butyryl (BChE) cholinesterase inhibitory potentials of C. papaya extracts as well as their chemical compositions. The chemical composition of the active extract was identified using a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Ellman enzyme inhibition assay showed that the alkaloid-enriched leaf extract of C. papaya possessed significant anti-BChE activity with an enzyme inhibition of 75.9%. GC-MS analysis showed that the alkaloid extract composed mainly the carpaine (64.9%) - a major papaya alkaloid, and some minor constituents such as aliphatic hydrocarbons, terpenes and phenolics. Molecular docking of carpaine revealed that this molecule formed hydrogen bond and hydrophobic interactions with choline binding site and acyl pocket. This study provides some preliminary findings on the potential use of C. papaya leaf as an herbal supplement for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.57-64
• /
• 1981

The clinical need for agents to modify immune response in the treatment of viral infection has lead to an increased interest in cellular and biochemical mechanisms regulating the immune response and to the development of a variety of biological and chemical substance with immunomodulatory activity. Inosiplex has shown antiviral activity in tissue culture, animal models and huamn studies through augmentation of immune response. However, the effect of inosiplex on immune response in animal has not been extensively analyzed, and the effect of inosiplex on immune response has been paradoxical depending on the time of administration of inosiplex in relation to that of antigen. Therefore, this study was undertaken to assess the effect of inosiplex on the immune response to sheep red blood cells(SRBC) in normal and viral infected mice. Inosiplex increased cellular immune response and plaque forming lymphocyte response to SRBC, decreased the recovery of S. typhimurium from infected mice spleen, and restored the depressed cellular immune response by measle and newcastle disease virus infections. All of the above results were observed only when inosiplex was given after immunization but did not when given before immunization. These results indicate that inosiplex stimulate the efferent are of immune response and may even block the afferent are, and suggest that inosiplex is a very promising drug in therapy of many viral infections.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.169-172
• /
• 2007

The Varicella zoster virus is responsible for two common infectious diseases: chicken pox(Varicella) and shingles(Herpes zoster). Chicken pox is the primary infection. After the initial infection, the virus remains dormant in sensory ganglia until reactivation may occur decades later. The subsequent reactivation is Herpes zoster. Herpes zoster of the trigeminal nerve distribution manifests as painful, vesicle eruptions of the skin and mucosa innervated by the affected nerve. Oral vesicles usually appear after the skin manifestrations. Reports of osteomyelitis of jaw after trigeminal herpes zoster are extremely rare. We report a case of osteomyelitis on mandible caused by herpes zoster infection which was treated by antiviral drug, curettage. At 1 year post-operatively, mandibular mucosa had healed without recurrent sign. But post-herpetic neuralgia is remained.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.31 no.9
• /
• pp.1305-1310
• /
• 2021

Shikimate is a key high-demand metabolite for synthesizing valuable antiviral drugs, such as the anti-influenza drug, oseltamivir (Tamiflu). Microbial-based strategies for shikimate production have been developed to overcome the unstable and expensive supply of shikimate derived from traditional plant extraction processes. In this study, a microbial cell factory using Corynebacterium glutamicum was designed to overproduce shikimate in a fed-batch culture system. First, the shikimate kinase gene (aroK) responsible for converting shikimate to the next step was disrupted to facilitate the accumulation of shikimate. Several genes encoding the shikimate bypass route, such as dehydroshikimate dehydratase (QsuB), pyruvate kinase (Pyk1), and quinate/shikimate dehydrogenase (QsuD), were disrupted sequentially. An artificial operon containing several shikimate pathway genes, including aroE, aroB, aroF, and aroG were overexpressed to maximize the glucose uptake and intermediate flux. The rationally designed shikimate-overproducing C. glutamicum strain grown in an optimized medium produced approximately 37.3 g/l of shikimate in 7-L fed-batch fermentation. Overall, rational cell factory design and culture process optimization for the microbial-based production of shikimate will play a key role in complementing traditional plant-derived shikimate production processes.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
• /
• v.62 no.3
• /
• pp.108-112
• /
• 2019

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a rare, progressive, and fatal central nervous system disorder resulting from persistent measles virus infection. Long-term data are scarce, with a maximum follow-up period of 10 years. Interferon-alpha ($IFN-{\alpha}$) is a protein that exerts its antiviral activity via enhancement of cellular immune response and is reported to be an effective drug for the treatment of SSPE. However, there is currently no consensus regarding the optimal duration of $IFN-{\alpha}$ therapy. Here, we present a case report of a patient with SSPE treated with long-term intraventricular $IFN-{\alpha}$ therapy, which facilitated clinical improvement and neurological stabilization without causing serious adverse effects. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the longest follow-up studies investigating a patient with SSPE receiving intraventricular $IFN-{\alpha}$ treatment. Further studies are necessary to validate the benefits and safety of long-term intraventricular $IFN-{\alpha}$ treatment in patients with SSPE.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
• /
• v.36 no.5
• /
• pp.363-375
• /
• 2021

Trends in the developing era to discover and design peptide-based treatments throughout an epidemic infection scenario such as COVID-19 could progress into a more efficient and low-cost therapeutic environment. However, the weakening of proteolysis is one downside of natural peptide drugs. But, peptidomimetics may help resolve this issue. In this review, peptide and peptide-based drug discovery were summarized to target one key entry mechanism of severe coronavirus pulmonary emboli syndrome (SARS-CoV-2), which encompasses the association of the host angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) receptor and viral spike (S) protein. Furthermore, the benefits of proteins, peptides and other possible actions that have been studied for COVID-19 through new peptide-based treatments are discussed in the review. Lastly, an overview of the peptide-based drug therapy environment is comprised of an evolutionary viewpoint, structural properties, operational thresholds, and an explanation of the therapeutic area.