Abstract
According to some recent studies, Cameroon is one of the sub-Saharan African countries most affected by hepatitis C, with low access to the standard therapy based on the combination of pegylated interferon and ribavirin. A first ethnobotanical survey, conducted in the Western region of Cameroon, reported the use of several medicinal plants in traditional medicine for the healing of liver-related disorders. Crude organic extracts of five plants surveyed were prepared and their effect against hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection investigated. The HCV JFH1 strain cell culture system HCVcc was used. The antiviral activity was quantified by immunofluorescent labeling of HCV E1 envelope protein at 30 h post-infection in the presence of the plant extracts. Active compounds were then tested in time course infection experiments. Dose-response and cellular toxicity assays were also determined. Three extracts, methanol extracts from roots of Trichilia dregeana, stems of Detarium microcarpum and leaves of Phragmanthera capitata, showed anti-HCV activity, with half-maximal inhibitory concentration of 16.16, 1.42, and 13.17 μg/mL, respectively. Huh-7 cells were incubated with the extracts for 72 h and it appears that T. dregeana extract is not toxic up to 200 μg/mL, D. microcarpum up to 100 μg/mL and P. capitata up to 800 μg/mL. All the three extracts showed a strong inhibition of HCV entry and no effect on replication or secretion. Taken together, these results showed that extracts from Cameroonian medicinal plants are promising sources of anti-HCV agents.
Highlights
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the major causes of chronic hepatitis, and related complications such as steatosis, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular malignancies (Sangiovanni et al, 2006)
Effect on Virus Assembly/Secretion Step To test the effect of the compounds on the assembly/secretion step, Huh-7 cells were inoculated for 2 h with HCV cell culture system (HCVcc), the inoculum was removed and replaced with Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM) containing 25 μg/mL of F1, F2, F6, or F7 extract for 46 h
Identification of Cameroonian Plant Extracts with Anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) Activity A first ethnobotanical survey, conducted in the Western region of Cameroon, reported the use of several medicinal plants in traditional medicine for the healing of liver-related disorders
Summary
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the major causes of chronic hepatitis, and related complications such as steatosis, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular malignancies (Sangiovanni et al, 2006). In October 2014, FDA approved a new drug for hepatitis C treatment: Harvoni which is a combination of Sofosbuvir and Ledipasvir (Keating, 2015) This drug is used for a 12-week course treatment and has the advantage that no IFN or RBV is needed and higher SVR rates are achieved. Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG; Ciesek et al, 2011; Calland et al, 2012a; Chen et al, 2012), ladanein (Haid et al, 2012) and cucurmin (Anggakusuma et al, 2013) are the most promising inhibitors Due to their low cost of production, extracts, or molecules isolated from plants used in traditional medicine might be useful in the therapeutic arsenal against hepatitis C in low income countries. We tested seven different extracts from five plants and report the anti-HCV activity of three Cameroonian plant extracts by the use of HCV cell culture system (HCVcc), representing the complete infectious cycle of the virus
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