| Title | MINIREVIEW] Bioactive Activities of Natural Products against Herpesvirus Infection |
|---|---|
| Author | Myoungki Son1, Minjung Lee1, Gi-Ho Sung2, Taeho Lee3, Yu Su Shin4, Hyosun Cho5*, Paul M. Lieberman6*, and Hyojeung Kang1* |
| Address | 1College of Pharmacy, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Institute for Microorganisms, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 702-701, Republic of Korea, 2Mushroom Research Division, National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science, Rural Development Administration, Eumseong 369-873, Republic of Korea, 3Research Center, Dong-a Pharm. Co., LTD., Yongin 446-905, Republic of Korea, 4College of Pharmacy, Duksung Women’s University, Seoul 132-714, Republic of Korea, 5Department of Medicinal Crop Research, National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science, Rural Development Administration, Eumseong 369-873, Republic of Korea, 6The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA |
| Bibliography | Journal of Microbiology, 51(5),545-551, 2013, |
| DOI | 10.1007/s12275-013-3450-9 |
| Key Words | natural products, anti-herpetic activity, nucleoside analogues, glycyrrhizic acid |
| Abstract | More than 90% of adults have been infected with at least one human herpesvirus, which establish long-term latent infection for the life of the host. While anti-viral drugs exist that limit herpesvirus replication, many of these are ineffective against latent infection. Moreover, drug-resistant strains of herpesvirus emerge following chemotherapeutic treatment. For example, resistance to acyclovir and related nucleoside analogues can occur when mutations arise in either HSV thymidine kinase or DNA polymerases. Thus, there exists an unmet medical need to develop new anti-herpesvirus agents with different mechanisms of action. In this Review, we discuss the promise of anti-herpetic substances derived from natural products including extracts and pure compounds from potential herbal medicines. One example is Glycyrrhizic acid isolated from licorice that shows promising antiviral activity towards human gammaherpesviruses. Secondly, we discuss anti-herpetic mechanisms utilized by several natural products in molecular level. While nucleoside analogues inhibit replicating herpesviruses in lytic replication, some natural products can disrupt the herpesvirus latent infection in the host cell. In addition, natural products can stimulate immune responses against herpesviral infection. These findings suggest that natural products could be one of the best choices for development of new treatments for latent herpesvirus infection, and may provide synergistic anti-viral activity when supplemented with nucleoside analogues. Therefore, it is important to identify which natural products are more efficacious anti-herpetic agents, and to understand the molecular mechanism in detail for further advance in the anti-viral therapies. |