Plant-derived antiviral drugs as novel hepatitis B virus inhibitors: Cell culture and molecular docking study

Parvez, Mohammad K.; Tabish Rehman, Md.; Alam, Perwez; Al-Dosari, Mohammed S.; Alqasoumi, Saleh I.; Alajmi, Mohammed F.

In the present study, our in vitro anti-HBV assessment of plantderived non-cytotoxic compounds showed promising inhibitory effects on HBsAg and HBeAg expressions. Of these, quercetin, baccatin III, psoralen, embelin, menisdaurin and azadirachtin showed high anti-HBV activity whereas lupeol, rutin, b-sitosterol and hesperidin had moderate effects. Moreover, a combination of querce-tin with highly active compounds enhanced the therapeutic efficacy. This was further supported by in silico molecular docking analysis where all tested anti-HBV molecules strongly interacted with the modeled HBV Pol active site residues. Taken together, our data suggested the novel anti-HBV potential of these natural compounds as viral pol/RT-inhibitors. Nonetheless, further experimental and pre-clinical studies on the most active compounds are warranted.