Tangeretin, an extract from Citrus peels, blocks cellular entry of arenaviruses that cause viral hemorrhagic fever.

Abstract

The family Arenaviridae consists of numerous enveloped RNA viruses with ambisense coding strategies. Eight arenaviruses, including Lassa virus, are known to cause severe and fatal viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) in humans, yet vaccines and treatments for disease caused by arenaviruses are very limited. In this study, we screened a natural product library consisting of 131 compounds and identified tangeretin, a polymethoxylated flavone widely present in citrus fruit peels, as a Lassa virus entry inhibitor that blocks viral fusion. Further analyses demonstrated the efficacy of tangeretin against seven other VHF-causing arenaviruses, suggesting that this compound, which has a history of medical usage, could be used to develop an effective therapeutic to treat infection and disease caused by Lassa virus and related viruses.

• Authors: Ke Tang, Shihua He, Xiaoyu Zhang, Jiamei Guo, Qing Chen, Feihu Yan, Logan Banadyga, Wenjun Zhu, Xiangguo Qiu, Ying Guo
• Journal: Antiviral research (Antiviral Res) Vol. 160 Pg. 87-93 (12 2018) ISSN: 1872-9096 [Electronic] Netherlands
• PMID: 30339847 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Antiviral Agents
• Biological Products
• Flavones
• tangeretin

Topics

• Antiviral Agents (isolation & purification, pharmacology)
• Arenavirus (drug effects, physiology)
• Biological Products (isolation & purification, pharmacology)
• Citrus (chemistry)
• Drug Evaluation, Preclinical
• Flavones (isolation & purification, pharmacology)
• Virus Internalization (drug effects)