Uses
3-O-Methylviridicatin is a metabolite produced by several species of Penicillium. Recently, 3-O-methylviridicatin was shown to be a strong inhibitor of TNFα-induced replication of HIV. Lack of availability has hitherto restricted a more intensive investigation of this interesting metabolite.
Biological Activity
5 μm: blocks activation of the hiv long terminal repeat by tnf-α in hela cellso-methylviridicatin, a natural derivative of the alkaloid mycotoxin viridicatin, is produced by several species in the genus, penicillium. it is demonstrated that o-methylviridicatin, as an inhibitor, blocks the tumor necrosis factor alpha (tnfα)-induced replication of human immunodeficiency virus (hiv). tnfα increases the binding of the cellular transcription factor nf-κb to the hiv long terminal repeat (ltr), which directly triggers transcription of the latent provirus.
in vitro
o-methylviridicatin had an inhibitory effect on the tnfα-triggered replication of hiv ltr in hela cells. in addition, o-methylviridicatin dose-dependently dampened virus production in the om-10.1 cell line, which was measured by the output of p24 core antigen into the culture medium. it was demonstrated that the suppressive effect of o-methylviridicatin was not reversed even if the concentration of tnfα was increased 10-fold [1].
IC 50
2.5 μm: inhibits virus production in om-10.1 cells (hl-60 promyelocytes infected with hiv-1) treated with tnf-α.
References
[1]. heguy, a., cai, p., meyn, p., houck, d., russo, s., & michitsch, r. et al. isolation and characterization of the fungal metabolite 3-o-methylviridicatin as an inhibitor of tumour necrosis factor-induced human immunodeficiency virus replication. antiviral chemistry and chemotherapy. 1998; 9(2): 149-155.
