Antiviral activity of SPM1605 against Coxsackievirus B3.

Bifidobacteria are considered one of the most beneficial probiotics and have been widely studied for their effects against specific pathogens. The present study investigated the antiviral activity of probiotics isolated from Koreans against Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3). The effect of probiotic isolates against CVB3 was measured by the plaque assay and cellular toxicity of bifidobacteria in HeLa cells was measured using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Among 13 probiotic isolates, 3 , 2 and 1 had an antiviral effect against CVB3, while the others did not show such effect. SPM1605 showed the greatest inhibitory properties against CVB3. When the threshold cycle (CT) values for the treated SPM1605 samples were compared to the results for the non-treated samples, it was shown that the amplified viral sequences from the CVB3 had their copy number lowered by SPM1605. Moreover, the gene expression in infected HeLa cells was also inhibited by 50%. The results suggest that SPM1605 suppresses CVB3 and could be used as an alternative therapy against infectious diseases caused by coxsackieviruses.