The antiviral activity of lichen metabolites against dengue virus

Abstract

Dengue fever is one of the mosquito-borne infectious diseases globally. Currently, no specific treatment was established. Depsidones and depsides are one of the most common lichen secondary metabolites produced for the organism’s survival in extreme environments. These compounds have been reported as antivirals against the other virus in Flaviviridae family, hepatitis C virus. In this study, depsidones and depsides were explored for anti-dengue efficacy and cellular toxicity. One depsidone, VK-0014, and two depsides, TT-031 and TT-032, exhibited an anti-DENV2 with effective concentration (EC50) of 17.42 ± 3.21, 2.43 ± 0.19, and 0.91 ± 0.15 µM, respectively. Cytotoxicity concentration (CC50) in Vero cells were 155.83 ± 7.77, 50.13 ± 7.45 and 12.10 ± 0.38 µM, respectively. The most effective compound, TT-031, was further study against DENV1-4 and ZIKV and found similar efficacies. The molecular mechanism studies revealed that the possible targets were cellular components rather than viral protein but the molecular target remains unclear. This study reports lichen depsidones and depsides an anti-DENV and ZIKV leads for the first time and could serve as effective candidates for further development as anti-DENV drugs.