Antiviral activity of the oseltamivir and Melissa officinalis L. essential oil against avian influenza A virus (H9N2)

Abstract

Lemon balm derivatives are going to acquire a novelty as natural and potent remedy for treatment of viral infections since the influenza viruses are developing resistance to the current antivirals widely. Oseltamivir, Melissa officinalis essential oil (MOEO) and their synergistic efficacy against avian influenza virus (AIV) subtype H9N2 were evaluated in vitro in MDCK cells at different time exposure by using TCID50, HA, Real Time PCR and HI assay. The results showed that MOEO could inhibit replication of AVI through the different virus replication phase (P B 0.05). Also the highest antiviral activity of MOEO was seen when AIV incubated with MOEO before cell infection. The TCID50/ml was reduced 1.3-2.1, 2.3-2.8, 3.7-4.5 log 10 than control group (5.6 log 10), HAU/50 ll was decreased 85-94, 71.4-94, 71.4-94 % and viral genome copy number/ll was brought down 68-95, 90-100, 89.6-99.9 % at pre-infection, post-infection and simultaneous stage, respectively. Hemagglutination inhibition result showed the MOEO was not able to inhibit agglutination of the chicken red blood cell (cRBC). Replication of the AVI was suppressed by the different concentration of oseltamivir completely or near 100 %. Also oseltamivir showed a synergistic activity with MOEO especially when oseltamivir concentration reduced under 0.005 mg/ml. The chemical composition was examined by GC-MS analysis and Its main constituents were identified as monoterpenaldehydes citral a, citral b. In conclusion, the findings of the study showed that lemon balm essential oil could inhibit influenza virus replication through different replication cycle steps especially throughout the direct interaction with the virus particles.

Antimicrobial Properties of Plant Essential Oils against Human Pathogens and Their Mode of Action: An Updated Review

“…Similarly, Zeedan et al [19] reported the antiviral activity of Achillea fragrantissima against the ORF virus (a parapox virus). More recently, Pourghanbari et al [145] evaluated in vitro antiviral activity of M. officinalis (lemon balm) essential oil and oseltamivir and their synergistic effect on avian influenza virus (AIV) subtype H9N2. They found that various concentrations of lemon balm essential oil suppressed influenza virus replication.…”

“…Furthermore, sesquiterpenes are known to inhibit cytomegalovirus (CMV) early gene expression [142]. According to Pourghanbari et al [145], the essential oil of lemon balm inhibits influenza virus replication at different replication cycles by directly interacting with the virus particles.…”

Effect of Novel Formulations using Lipophilic Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate against Influenza Virus Infection

“…Thus, a new generation of medications with completely different mechanisms of action against a broad-spectrum of influenza virus is in urgent need to better combat flu associated symptoms. A reasonably effective agent would reduce viral titer by at least 10-fold, whilst a good agent would reduce the titer 100-fold [23].…”

Potential of selected Lamiaceae plants in anti(retro)viral therapy

“…Potential synergism with conventional drugs could result in new recommendations of plant application with antiviral therapy. In revised literature, EO of Mentha suaveolens showed a synergistic effect with acyclovir against HSV-1 [69] and EO of lemon balm showed synergism with oseltamivir against avian H9N2 influenza virus [82]. In both cases, sub-optimal doses of drugs were enhanced with EOs, resulting in good antiviral activities.…”

“…A notable number of studies reviewed in this paper have also tried to detect the exact M-o-A of IS. This was achieved through the time-of-addition (T-o-A) study, which is comprised of assays with different procedures of addition of IS, viral suspension and cell cultures [48,[54][55][56][62][63][64]66,68,69,71,73,74,77,82,87,88,91,92,94,104,106,112]. Based on the highest activity in a certain assay, a conclusion about the exact type of M-o-A can be derived (Fig.…”