Griseofulvin, an oral antifungal agent, suppresses hepatitis C virus replication in vitro.
OBJECTIVE
Hepatitis C virus (HCV), which infects an estimated 170 million people worldwide, is a major cause of chronic liver disease. The current standard therapy for chronic hepatitis C is based on pegylated interferon (IFN)alpha in combination with ribavirin. However, the success rate remains at approximately 50%. Therefore, alternative agents are needed for the treatment of HCV infection.


METHODS
Using an HCV-1b subgenomic replicon cell culture system (Huh7/Rep-Feo), we found that griseofulvin, an oral antifungal agent, suppressed HCV-RNA replication and protein expression in a dose-dependent manner. We also found that griseofulvin suppressed the replication of infectious HCV JFH-1. A combination of IFNalpha and griseofulvin exhibited a synergistic inhibitory effect in Huh7/Rep-Feo cells.


RESULTS
We found that griseofulvin blocked the cell cycle at the G(2)/M phase in the HCV subgenomic replicon cells, but did not inhibit HCV internal ribosome entry site-dependent translation.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that griseofulvin may represent a new approach to the development of a novel therapy for HCV infection.
Jin
Haofan
H
Department of Microbiology, University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Japan.
Yamashita
Atsuya
A
Maekawa
Shinya
S
Yang
Pinting
P
He
Limin
L
Takayanagi
Satoru
S
Wakita
Takaji
T
Sakamoto
Naoya
N
Enomoto
Nobuyuki
N
Ito
Masahiko
M