Screening of antiviral activities in medicinal plants extracts against dengue virus using dengue NS2B-NS3 protease assay

摘要

Dengue virus infects millions of people worldwide and there is no vaccine or antidenguetherapeutic available. Screening large numbers of medicinal plants for anti-dengueactivities is an alternative strategy in order to find the potent therapeutic compounds.Therefore, this study was designed to identify anti-dengue activities in nineteen medicinalplant extracts that are used in traditional medicine. Local medicinal plants Vernonia cinerea,Hemigraphis reptans, Hedyotis auricularia, Laurentia longiflora, Tridax procumbers andSenna angustifolia were used in this study. The highest inhibitory activates against dengueNS2B-NS3pro was observed in ethanolic extract of S. angustifolia leaves, methanolic extractof V. cinerea leaves and ethanol extract of T. procumbens stems. These findings were furtherverified by in vitro viral inhibition assay. Methanolic extract of V. cinerea leaves, ethanolextract of T. procumbens stems and at less extent ethanolic extract of S. angustifolia leaveswere able to maintain the normal morphology of DENV2-infected Vero cells without causingmuch cytopathic effects (CPE). The percentage of viral inhibition of V. cinerea and T.procumbens extracts were significantly higher than S. angustifolia extract as measured byplaque formation assay and RT-qPCR. In conclusion, The outcome of this study showed thatthe methanolic extract of V. cinerea leaves and ethanol extract of T. procumbens stemspossessed high inhibitory activates against dengue virus that worth more investigation.