Abstract
BackgroundEchoviruses, a serotype of enteroviruses, infect millions of people globally and there is no specific drug treatment or vaccine available for its management. The screening of medicinal plants used locally for the treatment of infectious diseases, can provide a reliable option in the discovery of potent therapeutic compounds. This study was carried out to investigate the antiviral activities of 27 medicinal plant extracts, belonging to 26 different plant species, selected from Nigerian ethnobotany, against echovirus 7, 13 and 19 serotypes (E7, E13 and E19, respectively).MethodsThe plants were macerated in methanol and the cytotoxicities of the crude extracts were evaluated on the rhabdomyosarcoma cell line using the MTT assay. The antiviral activity of the plant extracts and fractions against echoviruses (E7, E13, and E19) was determined using the neutralisation assay, an assay that measures the inhibition of cytopathic effect on cell culture.ResultsThe crude extract of Macaranga barteri leaves had the highest cytotoxicity with CC50 value of 0.27 μg/mL. This was followed by Crinum jagus (9.88 μg/mL) and Terminalia ivorensis (12.14 μg/mL). The antiviral screening showed that ten out of the 27 crude plant extracts tested were active on E7 and E19, inhibiting the cytopathic effect of the virus in tissue culture. None of the extracts inhibited the cytopathic effect caused by E13 serotype. Amongst the active plant extracts, the methanol extract of M. barteri leaves had the highest antiviral activity on both E7 and E9 with IC50 values of 0.028 and 0.0017 ng/mL, respectively, followed by the Ageratum conyzoides extract (0.208 μg/mL, E7; 0.006 μg/mL, E19) and Mondia whitei extract (0.038 μg/mL, E7; 0.005 μg/mL, E19). Amongst the fractions of M. barteri, the DCM fraction was most the active and selective on E7 (IC50 = 0.0075 ng/mL; SI = 19,896.54) and E19 (IC50 = 0.0175 ng/mL; SI = 8581.24).ConclusionOur research has demonstrated that Macaranga barteri extracts has potent antiviral activity against echoviruses E7 and E19, and our findings suggest that this extract may have potential as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of enteroviral infections.
Highlights
Echoviruses, a serotype of enteroviruses, infect millions of people globally and there is no specific drug treatment or vaccine available for its management
Tissue culture infective dose The determination of the virus titre (TCID50) for Echovirus 7 (E7), Echovirus 13 (E13), and Echovirus 19 (E19) viruses by Sperman-Karber’s method gave a value of 10− 6 for the three viruses
This was followed by Crinum jagus (9.88 μg/mL) and Terminalia ivorensis (12.14 μg/mL)
Summary
Echoviruses, a serotype of enteroviruses, infect millions of people globally and there is no specific drug treatment or vaccine available for its management. The use of traditional medicine is popular in Africa, with almost three-quarter of the populace of this continent consulting traditional medical practitioners (TMPs), mainly traditional doctors, when faced with a medical problem. This is mainly because traditional healthcare system is accessible, culturally acceptable and comparatively cheaper to the costly orthodox medicine. Enteroviruses (EVs) are single positive-stranded genomic RNA viruses of the family Picornaviridae that consists of more than 100 serotypes. They have emerged as one of the important etiological agents for encephalitis, especially in children and adults. Like other enteroviruses, occurs via faecal-oral route transmission [7]
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