Griseofulvin, an oral antifungal agent, suppresses hepatitis C virus replication in vitro.

Aim: Hepatitis C virus (HCV), which infects an estimated 170 million people worldwide, is a major cause of chronic liver disease. The current standard therapy for chronic hepatitis C is based on pegylated interferon (IFN)alpha in combination with ribavirin. However, the success rate remains at approximately 50%. Therefore, alternative agents are needed for the treatment of HCV infection.

Methods: Using an HCV-1b subgenomic replicon cell culture system (Huh7/Rep-Feo), we found that griseofulvin, an oral antifungal agent, suppressed HCV-RNA replication and protein expression in a dose-dependent manner. We also found that griseofulvin suppressed the replication of infectious HCV JFH-1. A combination of IFNalpha and griseofulvin exhibited a synergistic inhibitory effect in Huh7/Rep-Feo cells.

Results: We found that griseofulvin blocked the cell cycle at the G(2)/M phase in the HCV subgenomic replicon cells, but did not inhibit HCV internal ribosome entry site-dependent translation.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that griseofulvin may represent a new approach to the development of a novel therapy for HCV infection.