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Antiviral activity of Undaria pinnatifida against herpes simplex virus
Author(s) -
Thompson Kenneth D.,
Dragar Charles
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
phytotherapy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.019
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1573
pISSN - 0951-418X
DOI - 10.1002/ptr.1487
Subject(s) - herpes simplex virus , virology , hsl and hsv , cytotoxicity , virus , biology , vero cell , biological activity , microbiology and biotechnology , in vitro , biochemistry
The major component of an aqueous extract of the seaweed Undaria pinnatida has been identied previously as a galactofucan (GFS), a sulfated polysaccharide. The galactofucan was partially puried and the material tested in this study is 75% pure galactofucan sulfate. GFS was evaluated for antiviral activity against 32 clinical strains of herpes simplex virus (HSV): 14 strains of HSV‐1 and 18 strains of HSV‐2. Twelve strains (four HSV‐1 and eight HSV‐2) were resistant to acyclovir (ACV‐R) and 20 strains (10 HSV‐1 and 10 HSV‐2) were susceptible to ACV (ACV‐S). The median IC 50 of GFS for the 14 strains of HSV‐1 was 32 µg/mL. The median IC 50 of GFS for the 18 strains of HSV‐2 was 0.5 µg/mL. GFS is signicantly more active against clinical strains of HSV‐2 than HSV‐1, p < 0.001. The mode of action of the GFS was shown to be the inhibition of viral binding and entry into the host cell. The cytotoxicity of GFS was >4.0 mg/mL in the neutral red dye uptake assay indicating that GFS is non‐toxic in this assay. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.