Identification of anti-HBV activities in Andr. using GRP78 as a drug target on Herbochip.

Background: Herbochip technology is a high throughput drug screening platform in a reverse screening manner, in which potential chemical leads in herbal extracts are immobilized and drug target proteins can be used as probes for screening process [BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2015) 15:146]. While herbal medicines represent an ideal reservoir for drug screenings, here a molecular chaperone GRP78 is demonstrated to serve as a potential target for antiviral drug discovery.

Methods: We cloned and expressed a truncated but fully functional form of human GRP78 (hGRP78) and used it as a probe for anti-HBV drug screening on herbochips.