Elsevier

Veterinary Microbiology

Volume 249, October 2020, 108849
Veterinary Microbiology

Aloe extract inhibits porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in vitro and in vivo

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetmic.2020.108849Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Aloe extract inhibits PEDV replication in Vero and IPEC-J2 cells in vitro.

  • Aloe extract can inactivate PEDV virions directly.

  • Oral administration of Aloe extract can protect newborn piglets against PEDV infection in vivo.

Abstract

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) causes severe diarrhoea and high mortality in neonatal suckling piglets, leading to significant economic losses to the swine industry. Currently there are no adequate control strategies against circulating PEDV variants, making an urgent need to exploit effect antiviral therapies to compensate for vaccines. Here, we report that Aloe extract can hamper completely the proliferation of PEDV at a non-cytotoxic concentration of 16 mg/mL determined by CCK-8 assay in Vero and IPEC-J2 cells in vitro. Furthermore, time course analysis indicated the extract exerted its inhibition at the late stage of the viral life cycle. Moreover, we also confirmed that the extract can inactivated PEDV directly but did not act on the viral genome and S1 protein. Importantly, the extract at a relatively safety concentration of 100 mg/kg of body weight, which was confirmed in mice, could reduce virus load and pathological change in intestinal tract of pigs and protect newborn piglets from lethal challenge with highly pathogenic PEDV variant GDS01 infection, indicating that Aloe extract efficiently inhibited PEDV infection in vivo. Collectively, our findings suggest that the aqueous extract from the Aloe could inhibit PEDV replication in vitro and in vivo and might be a good target for drug development against PEDV.

Keywords

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV)
Aloe extract
Antiviral activity
Swine

Cited by (0)

1

These authors have contributed equally to this work.

View Abstract