Ali Liaqat, Idrees Muhammad, Ali Muhammad, Hussain Abrar, Ur Rehman Irshad, Ali Amjad, Iqbal Syed Abbas, Kamel Eyad Hassan
Division of Molecular Virology, National Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, 87-West Canal bank Road, Thoker Niaz baig, Lahore 53700, Pakistan.
BMC Res Notes. 2014 Apr 17;7:247. doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-7-247.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is estimated to infect 200 million individuals in the globe, including approximately 10 million in Pakistan causing both acute and chronic hepatitis. The standard treatment against HCV is pegylated interferon therapy in combination with a nucleoside analogue ribavirin. In addition, several herbal extracts and phytochemicals derivatives are used traditionally in the treatment of liver diseases as well as HCV infection. The present study determines the inhibitory effect of kaolin minerals compound against hepatitis C virus in Huh-7 cell lines.
Huh-7 cell lines were used for the in vitro HCV replication by using HCV positive sera from different patients with known HCV genotypes and viral titer/load. Total RNA was extracted from these infected cells and was quantified by real-time polymerase chain reaction (Real-time PCR). The viral titer was compared with the control samples to determine the anti-HCV activity of kaolin derived compounds. Kaolin is a group of clay minerals, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2O5 (OH)4.
The results showed promising effectiveness of local kaolin derived anti-HCV compounds by causing 28% to 77% decrease in the HCV titer, when applied to infected Huh-7 cell lines. This study provides the basis for future work on these compounds especially to determine the specific pathway and mechanism for inhibitory action in the replicon systems of viral hepatitis.
Kaolin mineral derivatives show promising inhibitory effects against HCV genotypes 3a and 1a infection, which suggests its possible use as complementary and alternative medicine for HCV viral infection.
据估计，全球有2亿人感染丙型肝炎病毒（HCV），其中巴基斯坦约有1000万人感染，可导致急性和慢性肝炎。针对HCV的标准治疗方法是聚乙二醇化干扰素疗法联合核苷类似物利巴韦林。此外，几种草药提取物和植物化学衍生物传统上也用于治疗肝病以及HCV感染。本研究确定了高岭土矿物化合物对Huh-7细胞系中丙型肝炎病毒的抑制作用。
通过使用来自不同已知HCV基因型和病毒滴度/载量患者的HCV阳性血清，在Huh-7细胞系中进行体外HCV复制。从这些感染细胞中提取总RNA，并通过实时聚合酶链反应（实时PCR）进行定量。将病毒滴度与对照样品进行比较，以确定高岭土衍生化合物的抗HCV活性。高岭土是一组粘土矿物，化学成分为Al2Si2O5(OH)4。
结果表明，当将当地高岭土衍生的抗HCV化合物应用于感染的Huh-7细胞系时，可使HCV滴度降低28%至77%，显示出有前景的有效性。本研究为这些化合物未来的研究工作提供了基础，特别是确定其在病毒性肝炎复制子系统中抑制作用的具体途径和机制。
高岭土矿物衍生物对HCV 3a和1a基因型感染显示出有前景的抑制作用，这表明其可能用作HCV病毒感染的补充和替代药物。
