Glycyrrhizin, an active component of liquorice roots, and replication of SARS-associated coronavirus.
Cinatl J, Morgenstern B, Bauer G, Chandra P, Rabenau H, Doerr HW.
Institute of Medical Virology, Frankfurt University Medical School, Paul-Ehrlich Str 40, D-60596, Frankfurt, Germany. cinatl@em.uni-frankfurt.de
The outbreak of SARS warrants the search for antiviral compounds to treat the disease. At present, no specific treatment has been identified for SARS-associated coronavirus infection. We assessed the antiviral potential of ribavirin, 6-azauridine, pyrazofurin, mycophenolic acid, and glycyrrhizin against two clinical isolates of coronavirus (FFM-1 and FFM-2) from patients with SARS admitted to the clinical centre of Frankfurt University, Germany. Of all the compounds, glycyrrhizin was the most active in inhibiting replication of the SARS-associated virus. Our findings suggest that glycyrrhizin should be assessed for treatment of SARS.
PMID: 12814717 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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