A herbal remedy for herpes simplex virus infection

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dc.contributor.advisorMuli, F. W.
dc.contributor.advisorNjagi, E.N.M.
dc.contributor.authorTolo, Festus Mururi.
dc.date.accessioned2012-01-23T12:20:26Z
dc.date.available2012-01-23T12:20:26Z
dc.date.issued2012-01-23
dc.descriptionThe QR 400.2.H47T6en_US
dc.description.abstractHerpes Simplex Virus (HSV) infection has emerged as a major opportunistic infection particularly in immunosuppressed persons and therefore a serious disease in high Human Immunideficiency Virus/Aquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) prevalence areas as seen in sub-Saharan Africa. Present drugs for HSV management, such as the nucleoside analogue acyclovir, are experiencing resistance from the re-emerging strains of HSV. In this study, aqueous extracts from 12 medicinal plants were investigated for anti-HSV activity. The plants were collected within Kenya from medicinal plants used widely for the management of various diseases using information obtained from literature serach and ethnomedical use. Plaque reduction assay was used to determine the in vitro anti-HSV activity for the extracts by evaluating the ability of the extracts to inhibit the formation of plaques in Vero E6 cells infected with 100 Plaque Forming Unit (PFU) of HSV. A 50% inhibition at 50µg/ml extract concentration was registered as active. A murine model, in which BALB/c mice were cutaneousli infected with HSV and treated with extract, was used for in vivo determinations of therapeutic efficacy for the extract showing the best ntiiral activity in vitro. Acyclovir was used as a reference drug for both in vitro and in vivo investigations. In vitro and in vivo cytotoxicity of thr extracts was determinedby cell lysis and weight loss of respectively. Of the 12 plants tested, three extracts from Carissa edulis (Forssk.) Vahl (Apocynaceae), Maytenus heterophylla (Eckl. & Zeyh.) Robson (Celestraceae) and Periploca linearifolia Dill & A. Rich. (Asclepiadaceae) exhibited remarkable anti-HSV activity in vitro for both the wild type (HSV-1, HSV-2) and the resistant strains (TK-HSV-1, APr HSV -1) with an EC50 of 15-60µg/ml with no cell cytotoxicity (CC50 300-480 µg/ml). Carrisa edulis root-bark extract had the best activity in vitro, with a therapeutic index of between 31.8 and 69.6 for both susceptible and resistant HSV strains. The therapeutic efficacy of C. edulis extract was demonstrated in mice infected with wild type or resistant strains of HSV since an oral dose of 250mg/kg significantly delayed the onset of HSV infections by over 50% and increased the mean survival time by 28% to 35% relative to the infected untreated mice (p < 0.05 Vs control by Student's t-test). The mortality rate for mice treated with extract was also reduced by between 70% and 90% as opposed to the infected untreated mice which had 100% mortality {p < 0.05 Vs control by repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA}. No acute toxicity was observed in mice at the oral dose of 250mg/kg. The anti-HSV activity seemed to arise from terpenoidal and phenolic compounds detected in these extracts. These results show that the water extracts from C. edulis, M. heterophylla and P. linearifolia have anti-HSV activity. C. edulis root bark extract has both in vitro and in vivo activity and therefore can be exploited as an alternative herbal remedy for HSV infections.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipKenyatta Universityen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/2439
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subjectHerpes simplex virus//Herpes viruses//Herbs--Therapeutic useen_US
dc.titleA herbal remedy for herpes simplex virus infectionen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
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