Abstract
Background: For more than 2 decades, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has been known to cause significant morbidity and mortality. Difficulties in treating HIV-infected patients include adverse effects and drug resistance and continue to limit the use of conventional anti-retroviral therapies.
Objectives: To find new anti-retroviral drugs from natural sources, we investigated the inhibitory effects and mechanism of action of HESA-A, a natural biological compound of herbal-marine origin, against HIV-1 replication in vitro.
Materials and Methods: In this study, we used a single-cycle replicable HIV-1 system in which co-transfection of human embryonic kidney (HEK)-293T cells with pmzNL4-3, psPAX2, and pM2G.2 plasmids was performed. Cytotoxicity and cytopathic protection assays were performed using the 2,3-bis-(2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-(2H)-tetrazolium- 5-carboxanilide method. Inhibition of p24 antigen production was analyzed, and time-of-drug-addition assay was conducted using quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
Results: HESA-A inhibited HIV-1-induced cytopathic effect in MT2 and HEK293T cells, and the selectivity index values were 13.3 and 8, respectively. We performed quantitative p24 ELISA and added varying concentrations of HESA-A in cell culture supernatants at different times; we observed that HESA-A preserved its ability to inhibit viral replication even at 12 h post-infection.
Conclusions: These results suggest that HESA-A has potent anti-HIV activity, and its mechanism of action likely involves interference during the late stages of viral replication, such as virus maturation.
Objectives: To find new anti-retroviral drugs from natural sources, we investigated the inhibitory effects and mechanism of action of HESA-A, a natural biological compound of herbal-marine origin, against HIV-1 replication in vitro.
Materials and Methods: In this study, we used a single-cycle replicable HIV-1 system in which co-transfection of human embryonic kidney (HEK)-293T cells with pmzNL4-3, psPAX2, and pM2G.2 plasmids was performed. Cytotoxicity and cytopathic protection assays were performed using the 2,3-bis-(2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-(2H)-tetrazolium- 5-carboxanilide method. Inhibition of p24 antigen production was analyzed, and time-of-drug-addition assay was conducted using quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
Results: HESA-A inhibited HIV-1-induced cytopathic effect in MT2 and HEK293T cells, and the selectivity index values were 13.3 and 8, respectively. We performed quantitative p24 ELISA and added varying concentrations of HESA-A in cell culture supernatants at different times; we observed that HESA-A preserved its ability to inhibit viral replication even at 12 h post-infection.
Conclusions: These results suggest that HESA-A has potent anti-HIV activity, and its mechanism of action likely involves interference during the late stages of viral replication, such as virus maturation.
© 2012, AJUMS. Published by Kowsar M.P.Co. All rights reserved.
Keywords
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Hesa-A Herbal Medicine Antiviral Agents
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© 2012, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.