[Study on the anti-herpes simplex virus activity of a suppository or ointment form of Astragalus membranaceus combined with interferon alpha 2b in human diploid cell culture]

Biotech Center for New Pharmaceutical Development, Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, State Key Laboratory for Molecular Virology and Genetic Engineering, Beijing 100052.

A study on the anti-herpes simplex virus activity of the suppository or ointment form of Astragalus membranaceus(AM) combined with recombinant human interferon alpha 2b(IFN) was carried out in human diploid cell culture. AM is a Chinese herb medicine and have been used in China as a tonic for thousands of years and the IFN was produced from E. coli with 95% purity. Obtained results indicated that the placebo suppository and ointment(without AM and IFN) seemed not to decrease markedly the anti-viral activity of IFN in WISH/VSV assay system. The anti-herpes simplex virus activities of suppository and ointment forms of AM and IFN were shown to be significantly higher than that of IFN alone. It is well known that chronic cervicitis is closely related to papillomavirus, cytomegalovirus as well as herpes virus infections. The AM-IFN suppository is suggested to be used in the treatment of cervicitis and the ointment in the treatment of skin herpes.

PMID: 12526333 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]