title: Anti-herpes simplex virus activity of polysaccharides from Eucheuma gelatinae.
abstract: Acyclovir is a commonly-used drug for treating herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections, but with its wide clinical application, more and more resistant strains have been found. Therefore, seeking a drug that can act against acyclovir-resistant virus has become an important goal of drug screening and development. In this study, plaque reduction assay, real-time PCR, Western blot, and immunofluorescence technique were used to investigate the antiviral effect of Eucheuma gelatinae polysaccharide (EGP) on HSV and to preliminarily clarify the in vitro anti-HSV mechanism of EGP. EGP was found to significantly inhibit HSV infection in vitro and displayed a good inhibitory effect on acyclovir-resistant strains. More detailed experiments have shown that EGP prevented early HSV-1 infection through directly inactivating HSV-1 particles and impairing virus attachment, but without effect on viral penetration. EGP also inhibited the RNA synthesis of HSV-1 early gene and late gene as well as viral DNA replication; no effect on immediate-early gene synthesis was observed. Besides, through immunofluorescence and western blot, we found that EGP significantly affected the protein synthesis of HSV-1. Taken together, these results demonstrate that EGP exerts its anti-HSV activity mainly through impeding early HSV-1 infection and inhibiting viral RNA and DNA syntheses. The weak cytotoxicity, strong viral inactivation as well as attachment inhibition activity enable EGP to be a virucide candidate for HSV therapy, especially for drug-resistant strains.
authors.affiliation: Biomedicine Research and Development Center, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Bioengineering Medicine, National Engineering Research Center of Genetic Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China.
authors.forename: Fujun
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Cuiqin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhuo
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Huailin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yifei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D018259:Herpesvirus 1, Human / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D000461:Rhodophyta / Q000737:chemistry*; D014709:Vero Cells; D010948:Viral Plaque Assay; D053585:Virus Attachment / Q000187:drug effects; D038301:Virus Inactivation; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D011134:Polysaccharides