Hepatitis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Hepatitis, including details on hepatitis a, b, c, causes, symptoms.

Arbidol: a broad-spectrum antiviral that inhibits acute and chronic HCV infection.

Boriskin YS, Pécheur EI, Polyak SJ

Departments of Laboratory Medicine, Microbiology and Pathobiology, University of Washington, Seattle, USA. yboriskin@gmail.com

Arbidol (ARB) is an antiviral compound that was originally proven effective for treatment of influenza and several other respiratory viral infections. The broad spectrum of ARB anti-viral activity led us to evaluate its effect on hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and replication in cell culture. Long-term ARB treatment of Huh7 cells chronically replicating a genomic length genotype 1b replicon resulted in sustained reduction of viral RNA and protein expression, and eventually cured HCV infected cells. Pre-treatment of human hepatoma Huh7.5.1 cells with 15 microM ARB for 24 to 48 hours inhibited acute infection with JFH-1 virus by up to 1000-fold. The inhibitory effect of ARB on HCV was not due to generalized cytotoxicity, nor to augmentation of IFN antiviral signaling pathways, but involved impaired virus-mediated membrane fusion. ARB's affinity for membranes may inhibit several aspects of the HCV lifecycle that are membrane-dependent.

Published 4 September 2006 in Virol J, 3: 56.
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