Antiviral activity of herbal extracts against the tick borne encephalitis virus (literature review)

Abstract

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a widely known viral disease that is transmitted through the bites of ixodid ticks. In severe cases, it leads to disability or death of the patient. The causative agent of the TBE is the tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), which belongs to the Flaviviridae family. Despite the great importance of TBE in human pathology, currently the only way to prevent and treat this disease is a donor immunoglobulin, which has a number of significant disadvantages. In this paper, we analyzed modern literature on the detection of antiviral properties of herbal preparations and assessed the possibility of using them to search for new drugs against TBE. In general, the published works can be divided into two areas of research - the study of whole plant extracts and the study of the biological activity of the purified extract components. The most informative results can be obtained under certain conditions; for example, the study of both water extracts of plants and extracts with organic solvents, fractionation of the initial preparations with the detected antiviral activity followed by the concentration of the target substance; identification of an antiviral agent to obtain standardized drugs and preclinical testing in laboratory animals and cell cultures. This approach made it possible to identify three substances - hebulinic acid, panicalagin and baikalein - possessing inhibitory activity against Dengue flavivirus. The article discusses the possibility of using these substances against TBEV and the optimal algorithm for searching for antiviral agents in plant preparations.

Keywords

• terminalia chebula
• tick-borne encephalitis virus
• herbal extracts
• t. chebula