Identification of palmatine as an inhibitor of West Nile virus

  • Arch Virol. 2010 Aug;155(8):1325-9. doi: 10.1007/s00705-010-0702-4.
Fan Jia  1 ,  Gang Zou ,  Jingjing Fan ,  Zhiming Yuan
Affiliations
  • 1. State Key Laboratory of Virology, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China.
PMID: 20496087 DOI: 10.1007/s00705-010-0702-4
Abstract

In this study, we investigated the specific inhibition of West Nile virus (WNV) NS2B-NS3 protease and viral propagation by palmatine, a chemical compound from Coptis chinensis Franch. It was demonstrated that palmatine could inhibit WNV NS2B-NS3 protease activity in an uncompetitive manner, with a 50% inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) of 96 microM. Palmatine suppressed WNV without detectable cytotoxicity (a 50% effective concentration [EC(50)] of 3.6 microM and a 50% cytotoxicity concentration [CC(50)] of 1,031 microM). Furthermore, palmatine could also suppress Dengue Virus and yellow fever virus in a dose-dependent manner. This compound could potentially be developed for the treatment of Flavivirus infections.

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