Atividade antiviral da própolis vermelha de Alagoas in vitro contra o vírus chikungunya em sinoviócitos humanos semelhantes a fibroblastos (HFLS)

Abstract

The Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an arbovirus, transmitted by mosquitoes of the Aedes sp genus, which causes a disease characterized in the acute phase by symptoms such as: joint pain, fever, headaches, myalgia, skin manifestations and digestive system disorders.This arbovirus can progress to the chronic phase characterized as a chronic rheumatic syndrome (CRS) which persists for months or years, and so far, there is no specific antiviral for the treatment of this disease. Among natural compounds with antiviral activity, the Red Propolis of Alagoas (PVA) stands out, a natural resinous material produced by Apis mellifera bees that has several biological activities. In this way, the aim of this work was to evaluate the antiviral activity of the hydroalcoholic extract (EH) of PVA against CHIKV in human fibroblast-like synoviocytes (HFLS) in vitro. Firstly, the cytotoxicity assay was performed using the MTT methodology to determine the use concentration, and the concentration of 100 μg/ml was observed as the maximum non-toxic. Thus, assays were performed to evaluate the antiviral activity of HFLS infected with CHIKV (MOI = 0.5) treated with different concentrations of PVA (100 to 6.25 μg/mL) for 48h followed by analysis of cell viability by MTT .As result, a promising antiviral activity was detected at concentrations of 100 and 50 μg/mL, with an IC50 of 51.04 μg/mL and a selectivity index of 4.28. In addition, intracellular virus labeling was performed 48h after treatment, followed by analysis of the percentage of infected cells by intracellular flow cytometry. PVA treatment significantly reduced the percentage of CHIKV positive cells from 48.95% in the untreated viral control to 5.70% after PVA treatment. Subsequently, the antiviral activity of Biochanin A, a component of PVA, was evaluated. Treatment with biochanin A (200 μM) showed promising antiviral activity against CHIKV in vitro, reducing the percentage of infected cells from 27.06% in the untreated viral control to 8.47% after treatment. Thus, it is concluded that PVA and the compound Biochanin A showed a promising antiviral activity against CHIKV in HFLS in vitro. These results can contribute to the future development of new therapeutic strategies for this arbovirus based on compounds of natural origin.