In vitro screening for antiviral activity of Turkish plants revealing methanolic extract of Rindera lanata var. lanata active against human rotavirus

Andrea Civra,David Lembo,Patrizia Rubiolo,Valeria Cagno,Ahmet Uysal,Davide Sinato,Gokhan Zengin,Manuela Donalisio,Ramazan Ceylan,Rachele Francese

doi:10.1186/s12906-017-1560-3

Abstract

BackgroundHuman rotavirus (HRoV) is the leading cause of severe gastroenteritis in infants and children under the age of five years. No specific antiviral drug is available for HRoV infections and the treatment of viral diarrhea is mainly based on rehydration and zinc treatment. In this study, we explored medicinal plants endemic to Turkey flora as a source of anti-HRoV compunds.MethodsWe performed an antiviral screening on Ballota macrodonta, Salvia cryptantha and Rindera lanata extracts by focus reduction assay. The extract with the highest selectivity index (SI) was selected; its antiviral activity was further confirmed against other HRoV strains and by virus yield reduction assay. The step of viral replicative cycle putatively inhibited was investigated by in vitro assays.ResultsThe methanolic extract of R. lanata (Boraginaceae) showed the most favourable selectivity index. This extract exhibited a dose-dependent inhibitory activity against three different HRoV strains (EC50 values ranging from 5.8 μg/ml to 25.5 μg/ml), but was inactive or barely active against other RNA viruses, namely human rhinovirus and respiratory syncytial virus. The R. lanata extract targets the early steps of HRoV infection, likely by hampering virus penetration into the cells.ConclusionThese results make the R. lanata methanolic extract a promising starting material for a bioguided-fractionation aimed at identifying anti-HRoV compounds. Further work is required to isolate the active principle and assess its clinical potential.

Highlights

Human rotavirus (HRoV) is the leading cause of severe gastroenteritis in infants and children under the age of five years
R. lanata methanolic extract is endowed with anti-HRoV activity In a first set of experiments, we tested the anti-HRoV activity of R. lanata, B. macrodonta and S. cryptantha methanolic extracts against HRoV Wa
We performed LC-MS/MS analysis to identify and quantify phenolic components that characterize R. lanata methanolic extract, in order to make sure of the reproducibility of our study and to ensure that the results of future studies will be comparable to the ones of this research

Summary

Introduction

Human rotavirus (HRoV) is the leading cause of severe gastroenteritis in infants and children under the age of five years. We explored medicinal plants endemic to Turkey flora as a source of anti-HRoV compunds. Several studies reported on anti-HRoV activity by plant extracts [9,10,11,12,13,14]. In this context, we performed an antiviral screening of three plants endemic to Turkey flora and here we report on the anti-HRoV activity of Rindera lanata (Boraginaceae). The present study reports the anti-HRoV potency, the spectrum of antiviral activity, and the probable mechanisms of antiviral action of the R. lanata methanol extract

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Discussion

Conclusion