Molecular evaluation of extracellular activity of medicinal herb Clinacanthus nutans against herpes simplex virus type-2

Clinacanthus nutans (Burm. f.) Lindau (C. nutans), a medicinal herb belonging to the family Acanthaceae, has traditionally been used in herpes simplex virus (HSV) treatment in Thailand. Clinical trials have indicated that topical preparations produced from its extracts were effective in HSV-2 treatment. However, there is no clear evidence of the mechanism of action or a molecular target of C. nutans. In this study, the extracellular activity of C. nutans extracts against HSV-2 infected on HEp-2 cells was investigated in terms of its molecular aspects. HSV-2 was treated with the extracts and adsorped into the HEp-2 cells. After infection, HSV-2 DNA quantities in the infected cells were assessed and compared by the quantitative dot blot hybridisation technique. The results showed that treating the viruses with either less or more highly purified extracts before infection resulted in great reductions of viral infectivity. Further investigation was performed by Western blot analysis to determine the activities of the extracts on the viral proteins. At least eight viral proteins of the infected cell proteins (ICP) and some structural proteins, including 146, 125, 78, 69, 55, 44, 40 and 20 KDa proteins, were depleted and reduced gradually with higher and lower concentrated herb extracts, respectively. These suggest that the C. nutans extracts highly inactivated or inhibited HSV-2 before infection.