Ficus septica plant extracts for treating Dengue virus in vitro

• Published in: PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) Vol. 5; p. e3448
• Main Authors: Huang, Nan-Chieh, Hung, Wan-Ting, Tsai, Wei-Lun, Lai, Feng-Yi, Lin, You-Sheng, Huang, Mei-Shu, Chen, Jih-Jung, Lin, Wei-Yu, Weng, Jing-Ru, Chang, Tsung-Hsien
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States PeerJ. Ltd 08.06.2017; PeerJ, Inc; PeerJ Inc
• Subjects: Aichi virus; Biotechnology; Care and treatment; Cell growth; Crude extract; Cytotoxicity; Dengue fever; Dengue virus; Disease; Drugs and Devices; Ficus septica; Flaviviridae; Hepatitis; Herbal medicine; Hospitals; Immunofluorescence; Infections; Leaves; Medicinal plants; Medicine; Pharmacy; Plant extracts; Plant viruses; RNA viruses; Severe acute respiratory syndrome; Virology; Viruses; United States > US; Taiwan; Aichi virus; Ficus septica; Crude extract; Dengue virus
• ISSN: 2167-8359; 2167-8359
• DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3448

Dengue virus types 1-4 (DENV-1-4) are positive-strand RNA viruses with an envelope that belongs to the . DENV infection threatens human health worldwide. However, other than supportive treatments, no specific therapy is available for the infection. In order to discover novel medicine against DENV, we tested 59 crude extracts, without cytotoxicity, from 23 plants ; immunofluorescence assay revealed that the methanol extracts of fruit, heartwood, leaves and stem from Burm. f. had a promising anti-DENV-1 and DENV-2 effect. However, infection with the non-envelope , Aichi virus, was not inhibited by treatment with extracts. may be a candidate antiviral drug against an enveloped virus such as DENV.