Dongjun Jiang

Natural products have emerged as “rising stars” for treating viral diseases and useful chemical scaffolds for developing effective therapeutic agents. The nonstructural protein NS5B (RNA-dependent RNA polymerase) of NADL strain BVDV was used as the action target based on a molecular docking technique to screen herbal monomers for anti-BVDV viral activity. The in vivo and in vitro anti-BVDV virus activity studies screened the Chinese herbal monomers with significant anti-BVDV virus effects, and their antiviral mechanisms were initially explored. The molecular docking screening showed that daidzein, curcumin, artemisinine, and apigenin could interact with BVDV-NADL-NS5B with the best binding energy fraction. In vitro and in vivo tests demonstrated that none of the four herbal monomers significantly affected MDBK cell activity. Daidzein and apigenin affected BVDV virus replication mainly in the attachment and internalization phases, artemisinine mainly in the replication phase, and curcumin was active in the attachment, internalization, replication, and release phases. In vivo tests demonstrated that daidzein was the most effective in preventing and protecting BALB/C mice from BVDV infection, and artemisinine was the most effective in treating BVDV infection. This study lays the foundation for developing targeted Chinese pharmaceutical formulations against the BVDV virus.

The amyloid cascade hypothesis has predominately been used to describe the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) for decades, as Aβ oligomers are thought to be the prime cause of AD. Meanwhile, the neurotrophic factor hypothesis has also been proposed for decades. Accumulating evidence states that the amyloidogenic process and neurotrophic dysfunction are mutually influenced and may coincidently cause the onset and progress of AD. Meanwhile, there are intracellular regulators participating both in the amyloidogenic process and neurotrophic pathways, which might be the common original causes of amyloidogenesis and neurotrophic dysfunction. In this review, the current understanding regarding the role of neurotrophic dysfunction and the amyloidogenic process in AD pathology is briefly summarized. The mutual influence of these two pathogenesis pathways and their potential common causal pathway are further discussed. Therapeutic strategies targeting the common pathways to simultaneously prevent amyloidogenesis and neurotrophic dysfunction might be anticipated for the disease-modifying treatment of AD.