Abstract
BackgroundDengue is a serious arboviral disease currently with no effective antiviral therapy or approved vaccine available. Therefore, finding the effective compound against dengue virus (DENV) replication is very important. Among the natural compounds, bioflavonoids derived mainly from plants are of interest because of their biological and medicinal benefits.MethodsIn the present study, antiviral activity of a bioflavonoid, baicalein, was evaluated against different stages of dengue virus type 2 (DENV-2) replication in Vero cells using focus forming unit reduction assay and quantitative RT-PCR.ResultsBaicalein inhibited DENV-2 replication in Vero cells with IC50= 6.46 μg/mL and SI= 17.8 when added after adsorption to the cells. The IC50 against DENV-2 was 5.39 μg/mL and SI= 21.3 when cells were treated 5 hours before virus infection and continuously up to 4 days post infection. Baicalein exhibited direct virucidal effect against DENV-2 with IC 50= 1.55 μg/mL and showed anti-adsorption effect with IC50 = 7.14 μg/mL.ConclusionsFindings presented here suggest that baicalein exerts potent antiviral activity against DENV. Baicalein possesses direct virucidal activity against DENV besides its effects against dengue virus adsorption and intracellular replication of DENV-2. Baicalein, hence, should be considered for in vivo evaluation in the development of an effective antiviral compound against DENV.
Highlights
Dengue is a serious arboviral disease currently with no effective antiviral therapy or approved vaccine available
Our results suggest that baicalein when added to Vero cells exhibited cytotoxic effects with CC50=109 μg/mL (Figure 1)
More than 75% of Vero cells were viable in the presence of 12.5 ug/mL of baicalein which is important for our antiviral assays in step
Summary
Dengue is a serious arboviral disease currently with no effective antiviral therapy or approved vaccine available. Finding the effective compound against dengue virus (DENV) replication is very important. Dengue is among the most widespread mosquito-borne diseases. It is endemic in many tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world and is rapidly spreading to other countries where the mosquito vectors, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are found [1,2]. Dengue infection is caused by dengue virus (DENV), a flavivirus belonging to the Flaviviridae family. All four genotypes can cause a wide range of illnesses ranging from a mild febrile infection, self limited dengue fever (DF) to severe dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS). We examined the anti-dengue virus properties of baicalein
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