Original Article
Copyright ©2010 Baishideng. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 14, 2010; 16(2): 184-192
Published online Jan 14, 2010. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v16.i2.184
An antioxidant resveratrol significantly enhanced replication of hepatitis C virus
Mitsuyasu Nakamura, Hidetsugu Saito, Masanori Ikeda, Ryota Hokari, Nobuyuki Kato, Toshifumi Hibi, Soichiro Miura
Mitsuyasu Nakamura, Ryota Hokari, Soichiro Miura, Department of Internal Medicine 2, National Defense Medical Collage, 3-2 Namiki, Tokorozawa, Saitama 3598513, Japan
Mitsuyasu Nakamura, Hidetsugu Saito, Toshifumi Hibi, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Keio University, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 1608582, Japan
Masanori Ikeda, Nobuyuki Kato, Department of Molecular Biology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine and Dentistry, 2-5-1 Shikada-cho, Okayama 7008558, Japan
Author contributions: Nakamura M performed the majority of experiments; Ikeda M and Kato N provided reagents and were involved in editing the manuscript; Hokari R, Hibi T and Miura S provided financial support for this work; Saito H designed the study, provided financial support and wrote the manuscript.
Supported by The grant from the Japanese Ministry of Education and Science
Correspondence to: Hidetsugu Saito, MD, PhD, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Keio University, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 1608582, Japan. hsaito@sc.itc.keio.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-3-33531211 Fax: +81-3-33518705
Received: September 25, 2009
Revised: November 5, 2009
Accepted: November 12, 2009
Published online: January 14, 2010
Abstract

AIM: To elucidate the effect of antioxidants, resveratrol (RVT) and astaxanthin (AXN), on hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication.

METHODS: We investigated the effect of recent popular antioxidant supplements on replication of the HCV replicon system OR6. RVT is a strong antioxidant and a kind of polyphenol that inhibits replication of various viruses. AXN is also a strong antioxidant. The replication of HCV RNA was assessed by the luciferase reporter assay. An additive effect of antioxidants on antiviral effects of interferon (IFN) and ribavirin (RBV) was investigated.

RESULTS: This is the first report to investigate the effect of RVT and AXN on HCV replication. In contrast to other reported viruses, RVT significantly enhanced HCV RNA replication. Vitamin E also enhanced HCV RNA replication as reported previously, although AXN didnot affect replication. IFN and RBV significantly reduced HCV RNA replication, but these effects were dose-dependently hampered and attenuated by the addition of RVT. AXN didnot affect antiviral effects of IFN or RBV.

CONCLUSION: These results suggested that RVT is not suitable as an antioxidant therapy for chronic hepatitis C.

Keywords: Replicon system; Luciferase assay; Ribavirin; Interferon; Polyphenol; Astaxanthin