Planta Med 2004; 70(9): 813-817
DOI: 10.1055/s-2004-827228
Original Paper
Pharmacology
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Antiherpetic Activities of Sulfated Polysaccharides from Green Algae

Jung-Bum Lee1 , Kyoko Hayashi2 , Masaakira Maeda3 , Toshimitsu Hayashi1
  • 1Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Toyama, Japan
  • 2School of Medicine, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Toyama, Japan
  • 3Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saitama University, Saitama, Japan
Further Information

Publication History

Received: February 6, 2004

Accepted: May 20, 2004

Publication Date:
23 September 2004 (online)

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Abstract

In order to evaluate the potency of novel antiviral drugs, 11 natural sulfated polysaccharides (SPs) from 10 green algae (Enteromorpha compressa, Monostroma nitidum, Caulerpa brachypus, C. okamurai, C. scapelliformis, Chaetomorpha crassa, C. spiralis, Codium adhaerens, C. fragille, and C. latum) and 4 synthetic sulfated xylans (SXs) prepared from the β-(1,3)-xylan of C. brachypus, were assayed for anti-Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) activity. Except for one from E. compressa, all SPs showed potent anti-HSV-1 activities with 50 % inhibitory concentrations (IC50) of 0.38 - 8.5 μg/mL, while having low cytotoxicities with 50 % inhibitory concentrations of >2900 μg/mL. Anti-HSV-1 activities of SXs were dependent on their degrees of sulfation. To delineate the drug-sensitive phase, 4 polysaccharides, which showed potent anti-HSV-1 activities, were applied to time-of-addition experiments. Among the polysaccharides tested, 3 polysaccharides (SX4, SP4 from C. brachypus, and SP11 from C. latum) showed strong anti-HSV-1 activities with IC50 of 6.0, 7.5, and 6.9 μg/mL, respectively, even when added to the medium 8 h post-infection. These experiments demonstrated that some sulfated polysaccharides not only inhibited the early stages of HSV-1 replication, such as virus binding to and penetration into host cells, but also interfered with late steps of virus replication. These results revealed that some sulfated polysaccharides from green algae should be promising candidates of antiviral agents which might act on different stages in the virus replication cycle.

References

Dr. Toshimitsu Hayashi

Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University

2630 Sugitani

Toyama 930-0194

Japan

Phone: +81-76-434-7560

Fax: +81-76-434-5170

Email: hayashi9@ms.toyama-mpu.ac.jp