Quercetin antiviral activity
The Zika virus infected millions of people in 2015-16. There are concerns that vaccines using mAb-based products may have the undesired effect of inadvertently enhancing the severity of dengue virus infections. The development of small molecule drugs has become a priority controlling the spread of ZIKV.
Quercetin is one such example. It a flavonoid found in many Chinese herbs, fruits and vegetable, as well as red wine. It has been shown to help patients with severe complications to the influenza A virus infection. Quercetin has shown anti-proliferative, anti-oxidative, anti-bacterial, anti-cancer, and anti-viral effects.
Recent studies have also demonstrated that the anti-viral activities of these compounds found in quercetin are also effective against a number of other pathogens including Epstein-Barr virus, Hepatitis B & C viruses, Mayaro virus, and the Chikungunya virus.
Although treatment regimens will need to be optimized, quercetin has clearly demonstrated “in both tissue culture and knockout mice, that post-exposure in-vivo treatment could have a beneficial effect.”
Gary Wong et al.
VIROLOGICA SINICA 2017, 32 (6): 545–547
DOI: 10.1007/s12250-017-4057-9