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. 2023 Jun 15;15(6):1377.
doi: 10.3390/v15061377.

Antiviral Activity of Catechin against Dengue Virus Infection

Bowen Yi  1   2   3 , Benjamin Xuan Zheng Chew  1   2 , Huixin Chen  1   2   3 , Regina Ching Hua Lee  1   2 , Yuhui Deborah Fong  1   2 , Wei Xin Chin  1   2 , Chee Keng Mok  4 , Justin Jang Hann Chu  1   2   3   5
Affiliations

Antiviral Activity of Catechin against Dengue Virus Infection

Bowen Yi et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Dengue virus (DENV) is the cause of dengue fever, infecting 390 million people worldwide per year. It is transmitted to humans through the bites of mosquitoes and could potentially develop severe symptoms. In spite of the rising social and economic impact inflicted by the disease on the global population, a conspicuous lack of efficacious therapeutics against DENV still persists. In this study, catechin, a natural polyphenol compound, was evaluated as a DENV infection inhibitor in vitro. Through time-course studies, catechin was shown to inhibit a post-entry stage of the DENV replication cycle. Further investigation revealed its role in affecting viral protein translation. Catechin inhibited the replication of all four DENV serotypes and chikungunya virus (CHIKV). Together, these results demonstrate the ability of catechin to inhibit DENV replication, hinting at its potential to be used as a starting scaffold for further development of antivirals against DENV infection.

Keywords: antiviral; catechin; dengue virus; natural compound.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cell viability of catechin in (a) HUH 7 and (b) K562 cell lines and antiviral effects of catechin on DENV-2 in (c) HUH 7 and (d) K562 cell lines. Cells were infected with DENV-2 at MOI 1 and treated with catechin at various concentrations. The dashed line in (a,b) represents the CC20 cut-off for cell viability. One-way ANOVA and Dunnett’s post-test were used to determine the presence of any statistical differences, with ** denoting that p < 0.01. Error bars represent the standard deviation observed from the mean of triplicates performed for both cell viability and dose-dependent inhibition studies.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Time-course studies of catechin on DENV-2 infection in HUH 7 cells. (a) TOA and TOR studies of catechin. 100 μM catechin was added to or removed from DENV-2-infected HUH 7 cells at specific intervals post-infection. The supernatants were harvested at 36 hpi and viral titres were quantified. (b) Pre-treatment studies of catechin. HUH 7 cells were pre-treated with various concentrations of catechin 2 h prior to infection with DENV-2. (c) Co-treatment studies of catechin. DENV-2 was incubated with 100 μM catechin for 30 min, after which the suspension was filtered and used to infect HUH 7 cells. (d) Entry bypass studies of catechin. HUH 7 cells were transfected with DENV-2 viral RNA, followed by treatment with various concentrations of catechin. For the studies in (b–d), supernatants were harvested at 48 hpi and viral titres were quantified via plaque assays. One-way ANOVA and Dunnett’s post-test were used to determine the presence of statistically significant difference, with * denoting that p < 0.05 and n.s. denoting that p > 0.05. Error bars indicate the standard deviation observed from the mean of triplicates that were performed for each study.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effects of catechin on DENV-2 viral capsid protein translation. (a) Western blot analysis revealed decreasing amount of DENV-2 capsid protein expression after treatment with 1.562, 6.25, 25, and 100 μM catechin, as compared to 0.1% DMSO control. (b) Relative band intensities for DENV-2 capsid protein expression normalized to the 0.1% DMSO-treated condition. (c) Genomic map of the DENV-2 translation reporter clone used for the translation reporter assay. (d) Translation reporter assay showed a decrease in luciferase signals from cells treated with catechin relative to 0.1% DMSO-treated cells, further demonstrating that catechin affects viral protein translation. A concentration of 2.5 μM emetine was used as a positive control. One-way ANOVA and Dunnett’s post-test were used to determine the presence of any statistical differences, with ** denoting that p < 0.01. Error bars represent the standard deviation observed from the mean of triplicates performed for the translation reporter assay.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effects of catechin on DENV-2 viral capsid protein translation. (a) Western blot analysis revealed decreasing amount of DENV-2 capsid protein expression after treatment with 1.562, 6.25, 25, and 100 μM catechin, as compared to 0.1% DMSO control. (b) Relative band intensities for DENV-2 capsid protein expression normalized to the 0.1% DMSO-treated condition. (c) Genomic map of the DENV-2 translation reporter clone used for the translation reporter assay. (d) Translation reporter assay showed a decrease in luciferase signals from cells treated with catechin relative to 0.1% DMSO-treated cells, further demonstrating that catechin affects viral protein translation. A concentration of 2.5 μM emetine was used as a positive control. One-way ANOVA and Dunnett’s post-test were used to determine the presence of any statistical differences, with ** denoting that p < 0.01. Error bars represent the standard deviation observed from the mean of triplicates performed for the translation reporter assay.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Antiviral effects of catechin on other DENV serotypes and CHIKV. HUH 7 cells were infected with (a) DENV-1, (b) DENV-3, (c) DENV-4, and (d) CHIKV at MOI 1 and treated with various concentrations of catechin. Supernatants were harvested for all studies and viral titres were quantified. The primary axis corresponds to viral titre. One-way ANOVA and Dunnett’s post-test were used to determine the presence of any statistical differences, with * denoting that p < 0.05, ** denoting that p < 0.01, and *** denoting that p < 0.001. Error bars represent the standard deviation observed from the mean of triplicates performed the dose-dependent inhibition studies.
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This work was supported by Riway (Singapore) Pte Ltd. (Reference No. RCA-2019-1425).
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