In vitro anti-HIV-1 activity of the aqueous extract of Asterina pectinifera.

An aqueous extract of starfish, Asterina pectinifera, was investigated for its anti-HIV-1 efficiency in vitro on human T-cell lines. A. pectinifera significantly maintained the viability of HIV-infected cells as much as 86% of the untreated infected control cells at the non-toxic concentrations (0.05~4 mg/mL) in CEM-SS cells. Anti-HIV-1 activity of A. pectinifera extract was further supported by quantification of syncytia formation, reverse transcriptase activity and Western blot analysis in C8166, CEM-SS and H9 cells, respectively. Current results demonstrated a notable inhibition of HIV-1 induced syncytia formation and HIV-1 reverse transcriptase activity assay with EC50 of 0.71 mg/mL and 0.65 mg/mL, respectively. Moreover, A. pectinifera extract treatment decreased the production of p24 protein and gene expression of HIV-1 viral infection factor in a dose-dependent manner according to immunoblot and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis. In the light of current study, it can be concluded that A. pectinifera contains highly potential anti-HIV-1 components and a further investigation for active compound isolation is urged.