Anti-HCV Activity from Semi-purified Methanolic Root Extracts ofValeriana wallichii

Abstract

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a serious global health problem affecting approximately 130-150 million individuals. Presently available direct-acting anti-HCV drugs have higher barriers to resistance and also improved success rate; however, cost concerns limit their utilization, especially in developing countries like India. Therefore, development of additional agents to combat HCV infection is needed. In the present study, we have evaluated anti-HCV potential of water, chloroform, and methanol extracts from roots of Valeriana wallichii, a traditional Indian medicinal plant. Huh-7.5 cells infected with J6/JFH chimeric HCV strain were treated with water, chloroform, and methanol extracts at different concentrations. Semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction result demonstrated that methanolic extract showed reduction in HCV replication. The methanolic extract was fractionated by thin layer chromatography, and the purified fractions (F1, F2, F3, and F4) were checked for anti-HCV activity. Significant viral inhibition was noted only in F4 fraction. Further, intrinsic fluorescence assay of purified HCV RNA-dependent RNA polymerase NS5B in the presence of F4 resulted in sharp quenching of intrinsic fluorescence with increasing amount of plant extract. Our results indicated that methanolic extract of V. wallichii and its fraction (F4) inhibited HCV by binding with HCV NS5B protein. The findings would be further investigated to identify the active principle/lead molecule towards development of complementary and alternative therapeutics against HCV. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Valeriana jatamansi: An herbaceous plant with multiple medicinal uses

“…Valeriananoids B ( 180 ) isolated from the species exhibited moderate in vitro antirotovirus activity (Ming et al, ). Furthermore, preliminary reports on analgesic activity (Sah, Mathela, & Chopra, ), antidiarrheal and bronchodilatory activity (Khan & Gilani, ), antinociceptive effect (Sah et al, ), constipation ( Khan & Gilani, ), anti‐HCV (Hepatitis C virus) activity (Ganta, Mandal, Debnath, Hazra, and Chaubey (), lipid metabolism regulatory activity (Zhu et al ), and adeptogenic activity (Sharma, Kirar, Meena, Suryakumar, & Misra, ) of V. jatamansi are also reported.…”

Plant Products as Inhibitors of Coronavirus 3CL Protease

“…Natural products and their derivatives are used for treatment of various ailments since pre-historic times. A large number of herbal products and their constituents have shown promising inhibitory activity related to viral infections in humans (Ganta et al, 2017;Panda et al, 2017;Shen et al, 2019;Bahramsoltani and Rahimi, 2020). In 2002, during SARS-CoV outbreak in China, several clinical research projects were initiated on administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in combination with Western medicine for treatment of SARS-CoV infection (WHO, 2004).…”

The potential of Valeriana as a traditional Chinese medicine: traditional clinical applications, bioactivities, and phytochemistry

“…Chloroform and aqueous extracts from V. wallichii leaves were efficient inhibitors of Microsporum canis and Aspergillus flavus (Khuda et L., 2012). In addition, the methanol extract of V. wallichii rhizomes inhibited HCV (Ganta et al, 2017). As a Rev-transport inhibitor, valtrate from V. fauriei showed a potential anti-HIV effect, which inhibited the P-24 production of HIV-1 virus but without any toxicity to host MT-4 cells (Murakami et al, 2002).…”