Application of various antioxidants in the treatment of influenza

Abstract

We determined the effect of the antioxidants superoxide dismutase, desferrioxamine and allopurinol on the survival of male CBA mice infected intranasally with 2-5 LD 50 lung influenza virus A/Aichi/2/68. Survival for at least 20 days was observed for 45% of the mice that received 1000 U/day superoxide dismutase prepared from red blood cells on days 5, 6, 7 and 8 after infection, and 75% survival was observed for mice that received the same dose on days 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Desferrioxamine, 25 mg/kg per day and 100 mg/kg per day injected subcutaneously, resulted in survival rates of 5 and 0%, respectively, compared to 10% survival observed for saline-injected controls. Allopurinol at doses of 5 to 50 mg/kg per day had no effect on mouse survival. These data demonstrate the efficacy of superoxide dismutase for the protection of mice against hemorrhagic lung edema. The ineffectiveness of allopurinol suggests that the xanthine oxidase system does not play a major role in hemorrhage or lung edema and that caution is necessary when desferrioxamine is administered during an acute inflammatory process accompanied by erythrocyte lysis.

Kolaviron Improves Morbidity and Suppresses Mortality by Mitigating Oxido-Inflammation in BALB/c Mice Infected with Influenza Virus

“…inhibitors and adamantanes, only perform optimally and effectively when administered shortly after the manifestation of disease symptoms, before the onset of the cytokine storm (15). Evidences also abound that evolving pandemic strains outsmart the annually predicted vaccine that depends solely on informed and educated guesses from the prevailing isolates and circulating strains, thus necessitating a new antiviral bullet (5,29).…”

“…Thus, a recent paradigm shift includes the search and quest for antiviral, redox regulator and/or anti-inflammatory strategies that could either solely emerge as new antiinfluenza or adjunct therapy combined with the existing arsenal to reduce the severity and complications of influenza infections (1,5,14,18,(45)(46)(47)(48). Data from a number of studies suggest that the use of oxygen free radicals as targets may provide an approach to the amelioration of the pathogenicity caused by influenza virus infections (15,47), and several studies have reported the anti-influenza activity of medicinally potent and disease-preventing plant polyphenols and flavonoids with antioxidant properties (9,17,24,42,47,48).…”

Respiratory RNA Viruses: How to Be Prepared for an Encounter with New Pandemic Virus Strains

“…However, attempts to use the XOR inhibitor allopurinol (Pacher et al, 2006;George and Struthers, 2009) as a therapeutic agent for pneumonia induced by type-A influenza virus in the range of daily doses of 5-50 mg/kg were unsuccessful. Allopurinol had no effect on the course and the outcomes of viral infection (Dolganova and Sharonov, 1997), because the NADH oxidase and nitrite/nitrate reductase activities of XOR, which are realized by the FAD-dependent enzyme site, is not affected when the molybdopterin-containing center of the enzyme is inhibited by allopurinol (Harris and Massey, 1997;Doel et al, 2001;Boueiz et al, 2008). Since there are still no drugs that can inhibit the FAD-dependent activity of XOR, the prescription of heparin, which releases XOP from the connection with glycans and promotes its elimination from the focus of inflammation, is advised in order to prevent pulmonary thromboembolism and to desorb the enzyme from the cytoplasmic membrane of endothelial cells heparin (Povalyaev, 2014;Obi et al, 2019).…”

Therapeutic Uses of Antioxidant Liposomes

“…It has been suggested that the high production of ROS in the lung during influenza infection could inactivate protease inhibitors resulting in a damaging increase in protease activity (127). Administration of SOD has been found to be very effective in preventing mortality owing to influenza infection in animal models (128). It has also been suggested that antioxidants along with protease inhibitors could be useful in the treatment of severe influenza infection (129).…”