The effect of Houttuynia cordata injection on pseudorabies herpesvirus (PrV) infection in vitro.

Context: Pseudorabies herpesvirus (PrV) belongs to the Alphaherpesvirinae. Piglets infected with PrV die within a few days. Development of effective antiviral agents is one alternative or complementary method to prevent PrV infection. Houttuynia cordata Thunb. (Saururaceae), H. cordata, a traditional Chinese medicine, is often used to relieve lung abnormal symptoms, infectious disease, refractory hemoptysis and malignant pleural effusion in China.

Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of H. cordata injection on cell infection by PrV using Vero cells (a monkey kidney cell line) and swine testis cells (ST) as models.

Materials And Methods: The infectivity of PrV was determined by plaque assays when H. cordata was applied to the virus, to the virus infected cells, and to the cells prior to infection. The genomic DNA copies post-drug treatment were confirmed by PCR and reverse transcription PCR. The cell apoptosis caused by the virus was analyzed.

Results: H. cordata efficiently inhibited cell infection after incubating the drug with PrV. Nevertheless, H. cordata was more efficient in Vero cells than in ST cells in terms of its inhibitory effect. Low-dosage drug inhibited cell apoptosis induced by PrV; nevertheless, high-dosage drug alone resulted in cell apoptosis.

Discussion And Conclusion: H. cordata has a direct inhibitory activity against PrV in vitro. H. cordata may be used as an anti-PrV agent or combined with other anti-PrV agents. PrV infection induces cell apoptosis and H. cordata inhibits cell infection. The optimal administration dosage of H. cordata should be taken into account in the future, because high-dosage H. cordata alone causes cell apoptosis.