LymeNet Flash: The Antiviral Activities of Artemisinin and Artesunate

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»	LymeNet Flash » Questions and Discussion » Medical Questions » The Antiviral Activities of Artemisinin and Artesunate

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Topic: The Antiviral Activities of Artemisinin and Artesunate

sparkle7
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 10397

posted

FYI -

The Antiviral Activities of Artemisinin and Artesunate

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/591195

Thomas Efferth,1 Marta R. Romero,3,5 Dana G. Wolf,4 Thomas Stamminger,2 Jose J. G. Marin,5 and Manfred Marschall2
1German Cancer Research Center, Pharmaceutical Biology, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, Heidelberg, and 2Virological Institute of the University Hospital Erlangen, Clinical and Molecular Virology, University of Erlangen, Nuremberg, Germany; 3Medical Research Council Clinical Science Center, Hammersmith Campus, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom; 4Hadassah University Hospital, Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Jerusalem, Israel; and 5University of Salamanca, Laboratory of Experimental Hepatology and Drug Targeting, CIOBERehd, Salamanca, Spain

Traditional Chinese medicine commands a unique position among all traditional medicines because of its 5000 years of history.

Our own interest in natural products from traditional Chinese medicine was triggered in the 1990s, by artemisinin‐type sesquiterpene lactones from Artemisia annua L. As demonstrated in recent years, this class of compounds has activity against malaria, cancer cells, and schistosomiasis.

Interestingly, the bioactivity of artemisinin and its semisynthetic derivative artesunate is even broader and includes the inhibition of certain viruses, such as human cytomegalovirus and other members of the Herpesviridae family (e.g., herpes simplex virus type 1 and Epstein‐Barr virus), hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and bovine viral diarrhea virus.

Analysis of the complete profile of the pharmacological activities and molecular modes of action of artemisinin and artesunate and their performance in clinical trials will further elucidate the full antimicrobial potential of these versatile pharmacological tools from nature.

Posts: 7772 | From Northeast, again... | Registered: Oct 2006 | IP: Logged |

Staris
Member
Member # 17648

posted

Very interesting - thanks for sharing.

Posts: 30 | From DC | Registered: Oct 2008 | IP: Logged |

emla999/Lyme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12606

posted

Yes, thanks for posting this.

Posts: 1223 | From U.S.A | Registered: Jul 2007 | IP: Logged |

emla999/Lyme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12606

posted

I just found this:

"Investigation of inhibitory effects of the multipotent drug Artesunate against HHV-6"

http://www.hhv-6foundation.org/Artesunate_Marschall.htm

I wonder if Artemisinin is just as an effective antiviral as Artesunate(ART)?

Posts: 1223 | From U.S.A | Registered: Jul 2007 | IP: Logged |

Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673

posted

-

Sparkle,

thanks so much for that article. Great find.

Emla,

thanks for that link, too.

I don't have an answer to your question but you can do some searching around PubMed at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez

a cross search with the names of each form might get you started. You might also try this with Google Scholar, too.

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Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007 | IP: Logged |

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