Effect of the potent antiviral 1-cinnamoyl-3,11-dihydroxymeliacarpin on cytokine production by murine macrophages stimulated with HSV-2.

The limonoid 1-cinnamoyl-3,11-dihydroxymeliacarpin (CDM) isolated from leaf extracts of Melia azedarach L, has potent antiherpetic effect in epithelial cells. Since Meliacine, the partially purified extract source of CDM, has therapeutic effect on murine genital herpes, the potential use of CDM as microbicide against herpetic infections was studied here. To determine the cytotoxic effect of CDM, the MTT assay and acridine orange staining of living cells were performed. The antiherpetic action of CDM was measured by plaque reduction assay, and the immunomodulatory effect was determined by measuring the cytokine production using a bioassay and ELISA method. The results presented here showed that CDM inhibited Herpes Simplex Virus type 2 (HSV-2) multiplication in Vero cells but did not affect its replication in macrophages which were not permissive to HSV infection. In macrophages, levels of TNF-α, IFN-γ, NO, IL-6 and IL-10 were increased by CDM used alone or in combination with HSV-2. Besides, CDM not only synergized TNF-α production combined with IFN-γ, but also prolonged its expression in time. Results indicate that CDM inhibits HSV-2 multiplication in epithelial cells and also increases cytokine production in macrophages, both important actions to the clearance of infecting virus in the mouse vagina.