Antiviral activity of arbidol against influenza A virus, respiratory syncytial virus, rhinovirus, coxsackie virus and adenovirus in vitro and in vivo

Abstract

Arbidol, ethyl-6-bromo-4-[(dimethylamino)-methyl]-5-hydroxy-1-methyl-2-[(phenylthio)methyl]-in dole-3-carboxylate hydrochloride monohydrate, is an antiviral chemical agent. In this report, we studied the antiviral activity of arbidol against a panel of human respiratory viruses, namely influenza A virus (FLU-A, A/PR/8/34 H1N1), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), human rhinovirus type 14 (HRV 14), coxsackie virus B3 (CVB3) and adenovirus type 7 (AdV-7) in vitro in cell culture. Arbidol was found to present potent inhibitory activity against enveloped and non-enveloped RNA viruses, including FLU-A, RSV, HRV 14 and CVB3 when added before, during, or after viral infection, with 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) ranging from 2.7 to 13.8 microg/ml. However, arbidol showed selective antiviral activity against AdV-7, a DNA virus, only when added after infection (therapeutic index (TI) = 5.5). Orally administered arbidol at 50 or 100 mg/kg/day beginning 24 h pre-virus exposure for 6 days significantly reduced mean pulmonary virus yields and the rate of mortality in mice infected with FLU-A (A/PR/8/34 H1N1). Our results suggest that arbidol has the ability to elicit protective broad-spectrum antiviral activity against a number of human pathogenic respiratory viruses.

Efficacy of arbidol on lethal hantaan virus infections in suckling mice and in vitro

“…In the present study, arbidol inhibited HTNV replication when added before or after infection, with an IC 50 of 0.9 and 1.2 μg/mL and an SI of 17.4 and 13, respectively, indicating that arbidol is highly active against HTNV. It is unknown why no virucidal effect of arbidol was observed in this experiment whereas virucidal effect was exhibited for some other viruses [15] . It is possible that the arbidol concentration evaluated is below the IC 50 .…”

“…Safety of arbidol for suckling BALB/c mice A previous study showed that the LD 50 dose for female BALB/c mice with oral gavage treatment was approximately 314 mg·kg -1 ·d -1 [15] . We demonstrated that the LD 50 dose for suckling BALB/c mice orally administered arbidol for 10 days was 78.42 mg·kg -1 ·d -1 .…”

“…It has been shown to have broad antiviral effects against viruses such as influenza virus, coxsackievirus, respiratory syncytial virus [15] , and hepatitis C virus (HCV) 16] . The antiviral mechanisms of arbidol may be due to increased interferon production or…”

Amelioration of influenza virus-induced reactive oxygen species formation by epigallocatechin gallate derived from green tea

“…Assessment of cytotoxicity MDCK cell viability in the presence of various concentrations of EGCG was evaluated using the MTT assay as described previously [16] . Briefly, cells were treated with doses of EGCG ranging from 1.25-100 nmol/L for 30 h, and cytotoxicity was quantitated in a conventional microplate reader at 490 nm according to the manufacturer's protocol.…”

“…After 2 h of adsorption at 4 °C, the cells were overlaid with 0.2 mL of serum-free DMEM containing EGCG at various concentrations (two-fold dilutions starting from 20 nmol/L) and returned to 37 °C. Every 28 h after infection, the antiviral activity was measured with the MTT assay by evaluation of the therapeutic index [TI=toxic dose for 50% cell death (TD 50 )/ effective dose for 50% reduction on viral replication (ED 50 )] [16] .…”