Quercetin as an Antiviral Agent Inhibits Influenza A Virus (IAV) Entry |
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| Authors: | Wenjiao Wu Richan Li Xianglian Li Jian He Shibo Jiang Shuwen Liu Jie Yang |
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| Affiliation: | 1.State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Screening, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China; (W.W.); (R.L.); (X.L.); (J.H.);2.Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute, New York Blood Center, New York, NY 10065, USA; ;3.Key Lab of Medical Molecular Virology of Ministries of Education and Health, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China |
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| Abstract: | Influenza A viruses (IAVs) cause seasonal pandemics and epidemics with high morbidity and mortality, which calls for effective anti-IAV agents. The glycoprotein hemagglutinin of influenza virus plays a crucial role in the initial stage of virus infection, making it a potential target for anti-influenza therapeutics development. Here we found that quercetin inhibited influenza infection with a wide spectrum of strains, including A/Puerto Rico/8/34 (H1N1), A/FM-1/47/1 (H1N1), and A/Aichi/2/68 (H3N2) with half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 7.756 ± 1.097, 6.225 ± 0.467, and 2.738 ± 1.931 μg/mL, respectively. Mechanism studies identified that quercetin showed interaction with the HA2 subunit. Moreover, quercetin could inhibit the entry of the H5N1 virus using the pseudovirus-based drug screening system. This study indicates that quercetin showing inhibitory activity in the early stage of influenza infection provides a future therapeutic option to develop effective, safe and affordable natural products for the treatment and prophylaxis of IAV infections. |
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| Keywords: | entry inhibitor hemagglutinin influenza A virus quercetin |
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