Antiviral activity of punicalagin toward human enterovirus 71 in vitro and in vivo

Human enterovirus 71 is one of the major causative agents of hand, foot and mouth disease in children and has caused mortalities in large-scale outbreaks in the Asia-Pacific region in recent years. No vaccine or antiviral therapy is available currently in the clinic. In this work, we investigated the antiviral effect of punicalagin on enterovirus 71 both in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that punicalagin reduced the viral cytopathic effect on rhabdomyosarcoma cells with an IC50 value of 15 μg/ml. Moreover, punicalagin treatment of mice challenged with a lethal dose of enterovirus 71 resulted in a reduction of mortality and relieved clinical symptoms by inhibiting viral replication. Our work suggested that punicalagin have the potential for further development as antiviral agents against enterovirus 71.