Anthraquinones as a new class of antiviral agents against human immunodeficiency virus

The Antiviral Agent Hypericin hasin vitroActivity against HSV-1 Through Non-Specific Association with Viral and Cellular Membranes

“…While hypericin's affinity for membrane structures seemed to be non-specific, other fluorescent compounds such as BODIPY ceramide and NBD hexanoic ceramide are known to stain the Golgi apparatus selectively (Lipsky andPagano, 1985, Pagano et al, 1991). Schinazi et al (1990) first demonstrated hypericin's general affinity for protein by showing that addition of BSA blocked hypericin's inhibition of RT activity. However, in…”

“…Meruelo et al(1988) and Lavie et al (1989) indicated that hypericin is active in vivo against murine retroviruses such as Friend leukaemia virus and radiation-leukaemia virus (RadLV), while Tang et al (1990) reported that hypericin is active in vitro against Moloney murine-leukaemia virus. Other reports (Lavie et al, 1989, Schinazi et al, 1990 have shown activity in vitro against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). Tang et al (1990) demonstrated that generally, hypericin inactivates enveloped viruses only.…”

“…They demonstrated also that hypericin inhibits RadLV virion reverse transcriptase activity but were unable to see this inhibition against purified reverse transcriptase. However, Schinazi et al (1990) showed that reverse transcriptase inhibition by hypericin can be reversed effectively by addition of bovine serum albumin (BSA). (1991) have determined that hypericin neither inhibits binding of HIV-1 gp120 to the CD4 receptor nor membrane fusion events.…”

“…The fluorescence properties of hypericin allowed the authors to follow the uptake of the compound into various mammalian cells over time. As earlier reports from the laboratory (Andersen et a/., 1991) and from others (Meruelo et et., 1988, Schinazi et et., 1990 have implicated an affinity of hypericin to associate with detergent, membranes, and proteins, this phenomenon was investigated using fluorescence techniques. Results of these studies indicated that hypericin was localized into membranous regions of cells, that it had a high affinity for lipid, a variable affinity for protein, and that it had a slight inhibitory effect on HSV-1 (KOS) adsorption and penetration.…”

Breast Cancer and Current Therapeutic Approaches: From Radiation to Photodynamic Therapy

“…One relatively specific example seems to be its ability to inhibit various enzymes. HY, whether light-activated or not, has been found to inhibit an extensive spectrum of Ser/Thr protein kinases (Blank et al, 2001), protein tyrosine kinases or even HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (Schinazi et al, 1990), and it also seems to play a role in the onset of multidrug resistance phenotype ). Its fluorescence is applicable in the detection of tumours via PDD and has proved to be very effective in fluorescence cystoscopy of bladder cancer (Jichlinski & Leisinger, 2005).…”