Dewormer drug fenbendazole has antiviral effects on BoHV-1 productive infection in cell cultures

Background@#Fenbendazole, a dewormer drug, is used widely in the clinical treatment of parasite infections in animals. Recent studies have shown that fenbendazole has substantial effects on tumor growth, immune responses, and inflammatory responses, suggesting that fenbendazole is a pluripotent drug. Nevertheless, the antiviral effects have not been reported.Fenbendazole can disrupt microtubules, which are essential for multiple viruses infections, suggesting that fenbendazole might have antiviral effects. @*Objectives@#This study examined whether fenbendazole could inhibit bovine herpesvirus 1 (BoHV-1) productive infection in cell cultures. @*Methods@#The effects of fenbendazole on viral production, transcription of the immediate early (IE) genes, viron-associated protein expression, and the cellular signaling PLC-γ1/Akt pathway were assessed using distinct methods. @*Results@#Fenbendazole could inhibit BoHV-1 productive infections significantly in MDBK cells in a dose-dependent manner. A time-of-addition assay indicated that fenbendazole affected both the early and late stages in the virus replication cycles. The transcription of IE genes, including BoHV-1 infected cell protein 0 (bICP0), bICP4, and bICP22, as well as the synthesis of viron-associated proteins, were disrupted differentially by the fenbendazole treatment. The treatment did not affect the cellular signaling pathway of PLC-γ1/Akt, a known cascade playing important roles in virus infection. @*Conclusions@#Overall, fenbendazole has antiviral effects on BoHV-1 replication.

Anti-Inflammatory and antiviral effects of water-soluble crude extract from Phragmites australis in vitro

Phragmites australis [P. australis], a world wide distributed wetland grass, is traditionally used as food-making helper and spice in China. The pharmacological effect of this plant is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrated that lipopolysaccharide [LPS]-induced production of inflammatory mediators nitric oxide [NO] and reactive oxygen species [ROS], and the pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-a [TNF-alpha] and interleukin-lp [IL-1P] in RAW264.7 macrophage were significantly inhibited by the crude extract. The inflammation pertinent signaling extra cellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 [Erkl/2], P38MAPK, C-Jun and NF-kappaB [NF-KB] activated by LPS could be dramatically inhibited by this extract. It also remarkably inhibited bovine herpes virus type 1 [BoHV-1] replication in MDBK cells. Taken together, here, for the first time we provided P. australis