Eupatorium fortunei and Its Components Increase Antiviral Immune Responses against RNA Viruses

Abstract

Eupatorium fortunei (EF) has long been used as herbal medicine in Korea, China, and Asian countries to treat a variety of diseases. Recent studies have reported that EF has anti-metastatic, anti-angiogenic, anti-bacterial, and anti-oxidant activities, as well as activities against malignant metastatic human cancers. The effect of EF and its components on viruses has not been reported. In the present study, the antiviral activity and mechanism of action of an aqueous extract of EF (WEF) and its components were evaluated in vitro. We found that pretreatment with WEF markedly reduced viral replication, as evaluated using a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged virus (influenza A virus, Newcastle disease virus, and vesicular stomatitis virus) in murine RAW 264.7 macrophage cells. We demonstrated that WEF induces the production of type I IFN including pro-inflammatory cytokines. Additionally, we identified the active anti-viral components of WEF as quercetin, psoralen, and quercitrin. Thus, WEF and its active components are immunomodulators of the innate immune response in murine macrophages, a finding that is potentially useful to developing prophylactic or therapeutic treatments against a range of viruses.

Antiviral activity of ethanol extract of Geranii Herba and its components against influenza viruses via neuraminidase inhibition

“…The inhibition of viral replication was assayed as previously described 25 . Briefly, MDCK cells were cultured in 96-well plates (2 × 10 4 cells/well) for 16 h. Then differing GHE concentrations (100 or 200 μg/mL) were added to H1N1 [multiplicity of infection (MOI) = 1] and A/PR/8/34-GFP (MOI = 1) and the mixtures were incubated at 37 °C for 1 h. MDCK cells were infected with these mixtures at 37 °C for 2 h. Afterwards, the virus was removed, and cells were washed three times with PBS, and the medium was replaced by complete DMEM.…”

“…The cells were incubated for 48 h at 37 °C with 5% CO 2 . The reduction of viral cytopathic effect was determined by measuring cell viability measured using MTS assay as described above 25 . Influenza virus GFP expression was measured under a fluorescence microscope (Olympus, Tokyo, Japan) following 24 h of viral infection.…”

“…There are many reports describing the potent antiviral activity of such plants 22 , which have provided alternative therapies for the treatment of influenza 23,24 . Recently, we reported that the extracts of two traditional medicinal plants Eupatorium fortune 25 and Panax notoginseng root 26 showed antiviral activity against influenza virus in vitro and in vivo . Thus, the search for antiviral active agents using these natural sources provides potential for the development of new effective antiviral agents.…”

A Review of the Pharmacological Properties of Psoralen

“…Subsequently, Choi et al found that psoralen significantly inhibited the replication of A/PR/8/34 H1N1 virus and induced macrophages to secrete antiviral cytokines such as interferon-beta (IFN-β). Choi et al, 2017 . A recent study found that low concentrations of IFN-β can significantly inhibit Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection ( Mantlo et al, 2020 ).…”

Therapeutic Development and Drugs for the Treatment of COVID-19

“…Eupatorium fortune is a herbal medicinal plant belonging to Korea, China, and Asian countries with antibacterial and antioxidant activities and anticancer activity. Recent studies have reported that eupatorium fortune can inhibit a number of RNA viruses including human coronaviruses (Choi et al 2017). As these herbal drugs demonstrated potential antiviral activity against CoVs, there is an urgent need to establish their effectiveness in humans and approve in a dose-dependent manner from various organizations like Food and Drug Administration (FDA).…”