Turmeric could have antiviral properties 薑黃可能具有抗病毒特性

News Release 17-Jul-2020

Curcumin, a natural compound found in the spice turmeric, could help eliminate certain viruses.

Microbiology Society

Curcumin, a natural compound found in the spice turmeric, could help eliminate certain viruses, research has found.

A study published in the Journal of General Virology showed that curcumin can prevent Transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) – an alpha-group coronavirus that infects pigs – from infecting cells. At higher doses, the compound was also found to kill virus particles.

Infection with TGEV causes a disease called transmissible gastroenteritis in piglets, which is characterised by diarrhoea, severe dehydration and death. TGEV is highly infectious and is invariably fatal in piglets younger than two weeks, thus posing a major threat to the global swine industry. There are currently no approved treatments for alpha-coronaviruses and although there is a vaccine for TGEV, it is not effective in preventing the spread of the virus.

To determine the potential antiviral properties of curcumin, the research team treated experimental cells with various concentrations of the compound, before attempting to infect them with TGEV. They found that higher concentrations of curcumin reduced the number of virus particles in the cell culture.

The research suggests that curcumin affects TGEV in a number of ways: by directly killing the virus before it is able to infect the cell, by integrating with the viral envelope to ‘inactivate’ the virus, and by altering the metabolism of cells to prevent viral entry. “Curcumin has a significant inhibitory effect on TGEV adsorption step and a certain direct inactivation effect, suggesting that curcumin has great potential in the prevention of TGEV infection,” said Dr Lilan Xie, lead author of the study and researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Bioengineering.

Curcumin has been shown to inhibit the replication of some types of virus, including dengue virus, hepatitis B and Zika virus. The compound has also been found to have a number of significant biological effects, including antitumor, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial activities. Curcumin was chosen for this research due to having low side effects according to Dr Xie. They said: “There are great difficulties in the prevention and control of viral diseases, especially when there are no effective vaccines. Traditional Chinese medicine and its active ingredients, are ideal screening libraries for antiviral drugs because of their advantages, such as convenient acquisition and low side effects.”

The researchers now hope to continue their research in vivo, using an animal model to assess whether the inhibiting properties of curcumin would be seen in a more complex system. “Further studies will be required, to evaluate the inhibitory effect in vivo and explore the potential mechanisms of curcumin against TGEV, which will lay a foundation for the comprehensive understanding of the antiviral mechanisms and application of curcumin” said Dr Xie.

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薑黃素是香料薑黃中的天然化合物，可以幫助消除某些病毒。

微生物學會

研究發現，薑黃素是香料薑黃中的一種天然化合物，可以幫助消除某些病毒。

發表在《普通病毒學雜誌》上的一項研究表明，薑黃素可以預防傳染豬的傳染性胃腸炎病毒（TGEV）-一種感染豬的α-型冠狀病毒。在較高劑量下，還發現該化合物殺死病毒顆粒。

TGEV感染會導致仔豬傳染性腸胃炎，其特徵為腹瀉，嚴重脫水和死亡。 TGEV具有高度傳染性，並且在兩週以下的仔豬中總是致命的，因此對全球養豬業構成了重大威脅。目前尚無批准的用於治療冠狀病毒的方法，儘管有針對TGEV的疫苗，但它在預防病毒傳播方面並不有效。

為了確定薑黃素的潛在抗病毒特性，研究小組在嘗試用TGEV感染之前，用各種濃度的化合物處理了實驗細胞。他們發現更高濃度的薑黃素減少了細胞培養物中病毒顆粒的數量。

研究表明薑黃素可通過多種方式影響TGEV：通過在病毒感染細胞之前直接殺死病毒，與病毒包膜整合以“滅活”病毒，以及改變細胞代謝以預防病毒條目。 “薑黃素對TGEV的吸附步驟具有顯著的抑製作用，並且具有一定的直接滅活作用，這表明薑黃素具有預防TGEV感染的巨大潛力，”該研究的首席作者，研究員。

薑黃素已顯示出抑制某些類型病毒的複制，包括登革熱病毒，乙型肝炎病毒和寨卡病毒。還發現該化合物具有許多重要的生物學作用，包括抗腫瘤，抗炎和抗菌活性。謝博士說，薑黃素之所以被選擇用於這項研究是因為其副作用低。他們說：“在預防和控制病毒性疾病方面存在很大的困難，特別是在沒有有效疫苗的情況下。中藥及其有效成分是抗病毒藥物的理想篩選庫，因為它們具有諸如獲取方便和副作用小等優點。

現在，研究人員希望繼續使用動物模型進行體內研究，以評估在更複雜的系統中是否可以看到薑黃素的抑制特性。謝博士說：“需要進一步的研究，以評估其在體內的抑製作用，並探索薑黃素對抗TGEV的潛在機制，這將為全面了解薑黃素的抗病毒機制和應用奠定基礎。”