Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
chickenpox and cold sores. Many serious diseases such as Ebola virus disease, acquired
immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), avian influenza and severe acute respiratory
syndrome (SARS) are caused by viruses [22]. Antiviral drugs are used specifically for
treating viral infections. They are relatively harmless to the host, and therefore can
be used to treat infections. Designing safe and effective antiviral drugs is difficult,
because viruses use the host's cells to replicate. This makes it difficult to find targets
for the drug that would interfere with the virus without also harming the cells of the
host organism [23].
In the search for novel antiviral molecules from natural products, much attention
has been paid to the antivirus activity of rosin derivatives. Sandaracopimaric acid
(
35
), dehydroabietic acid (
2
) and abieta-8,11,13-triene-15,18-diol (
36
) isolated
from the cones of
Pinus luchuensis
showed potent inhibitory effects on Epstein-
Barr virus early antigen (EBV-EA) activation induced by the tumour promoter
12-
O
-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). Compounds (
35
) and (3
6
) (
Scheme
6.8
) exhibited significant inhibitory effects on activation with 100% inhibition of
activation at 1000 mol ratio:TPA, more than 66% inhibition at 500 mol ratio:TPA,
and more than 27% inhibition at 100 mol ratio:TPA. They were found to be more
effective than that of α-carotene, a vitamin A precursor that has been intensively
studied in cancer chemoprevention using animal models [24]. Sandaracopimaric acid
can be considered as an appropriate lead compound for further evaluation.
Scheme 6.8
Structure of compounds (
35
) and (
36
)
Rosin derivatives have many kinds of biological activities. The antiviral activity of
the abietanes and dehydroabietanes against Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) was
determined using a modified end-point titration technique [14]. The abietanes (
3
-
6
)
reduced the HSV-1 replication at values below 100 mg/mL. The abietinol (
4
) showed
the highest antiviral activity, and it was found to be slightly active against HSV-1
