Human enterovirus 71, a member of the Picornaviridae family, is one of the major causative agent of hand, foot and mouth disease in children less than six years old. This illness has caused mortalities in large-scale outbreaks in the Asia-Pacific region in recent years. No vaccine or antiviral therapy is available. In this study, antiviral effect of matrine against enterovirus 71 were evaluated in vitro and in vivo. Matrine could suppress the viral RNA copy number on rhabdomyosarcoma cells. Moreover, matrine treatment of mice challenged with a lethal dose of enterovirus 71 reduced the mortality and relieved clinical symptoms. The results showed that matrine may represent a potential therapeutic agent for enterovirus 71 infection.

Human enterovirus 71 is one of the major causative agents of hand, foot and mouth disease in children under six years of age. Presently, no vaccines or antiviral drugs have been clinically available to employ against EV71. In this study, we demonstrate that treatment with chebulagic acid reduced the viral cytopathic effect on rhabdomyosarcoma cells with an IC50 of 12.5 μg/mL. The utilization of the chebulagic acid treatment on mice challenged with a lethal dose of enterovirus 71 was able to efficiently reduce mortality and relieve clinical symptoms through the inhibition of viral replication. Chebulagic acid may represent a potential therapeutic agent to control infections to enterovirus 71.

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