λ-Carrageenan P32 Is a Potent Inhibitor of Rabies Virus Infection

PLoS One. 2015 Oct 14;10(10):e0140586. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140586. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Rabies, caused by rabies virus (RABV), is an acute, fatal encephalitic disease that affects many warm-blooded mammals. Currently, post-exposure prophylaxis regimens are effective for most rabies cases, but once the clinical signs of the disease appear, current treatment options become ineffective. Carrageenan has been reported as a potent inhibitor of many viruses. In this study, the λ-carrageenan (λ-CG) P32 was investigated for its potential role in inhibiting RABV infection. Our results show that P32 specifically inhibits the replication of several RABV strains but not vesicular stomatitis virus in multiple cell lines and shows low cytotoxicity. P32 mainly abrogated viral replication during the early stage of the post-adsorption period. Further studies demonstrated that P32 could affect not only viral internalization but also viral uncoating by blocking cell fusion mediated by RABV glycoprotein. Moreover, P32 can fully inhibit RABV infection in vitro during the post-adsorption period, whereas heparin and heparan sulfate, which possess similar structures to P32, showed significant but not complete inhibition of RABV infectivity. Collectively, our results indicate that λ-CG P32 is a promising agent that can inhibit RABV infection mainly by inhibiting viral internalization and glycoprotein-mediated cell fusion and can be used for the development of novel anti-RABV drugs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antiviral Agents / chemistry
  • Antiviral Agents / pharmacology*
  • Carrageenan / chemistry
  • Carrageenan / pharmacology*
  • Cell Line
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
  • Giant Cells / drug effects
  • Heparin / pharmacology
  • Heparitin Sulfate / pharmacology
  • Humans
  • Rabies / drug therapy
  • Rabies / virology
  • Rabies virus / drug effects*
  • Virus Internalization / drug effects
  • Virus Replication / drug effects

Substances

  • Antiviral Agents
  • Carrageenan
  • Heparin
  • Heparitin Sulfate

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Wuhan Science and Technology Bureau of China, http://www.whst.gov.cn, Grant No.: 2014020101010071 to LZ; The National Natural Science Foundation of China, http://www.nsfc.gov.cn, Grant No.: 31372419 to LZ; The Seventh Framework Program, http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/home.html, Grant No.: FP7-613804 to LZ; and The National Natural Science Foundation of China, http://www.nsfc.gov.cn, Grant No.: 31330078 to ZF. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.