Hepatoprotective, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral activities of silymarin against mayaro virus infection.
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Date
2021
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Abstract
Infection caused by Mayaro virus (MAYV) is responsible for causing acute nonspecific fever, in which the ma-
jority of patients develop incapacitating and persistent arthritis/arthralgia. Mayaro fever is a neglected and
underreported disease without treatment or vaccine, which has gained attention in recent years after the
competence of Aedes aegypti to transmit MAYV was observed in the laboratory, coupled with the fact that cases
are being increasingly reported outside of endemic forest areas, calling attention to the potential of an urban
cycle arising in the near future. Thus, to mitigate the lack of information about the pathological aspects of MAYV,
we previously described the involvement of oxidative stress in MAYV infection in cultured cells and in a non-
lethal mouse model. Additionally, we showed that silymarin, a natural compound, attenuated MAYV-induced
oxidative stress and inhibited MAYV replication in cells. The antioxidant and anti-MAYV effects prompted us
to determine whether silymarin could also reduce oxidative stress and MAYV replication after infection in an
immunocompetent animal model. We show that infected mice exhibited reduced weight gain, hepatomegaly,
splenomegaly, anaemia, thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, increased liver transaminases, increased pro-
inflammatory cytokines and liver inflammation, increased oxidative damage biomarkers, and reduced antioxi-
dant enzyme activity. However, in animals infected and treated with silymarin, all these parameters were
reversed or significantly improved, and the detection of viral load in the liver, spleen, brain, thigh muscle, and
footpad was significantly reduced. This work reinforces the potent hepatoprotective, antioxidant, anti-
inflammatory, and antiviral effects of silymarin against MAYV infection, demonstrating its potential against
Mayaro fever disease.
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Keywords
Antioxidant, Mayaro, Silymarin, Antiviral, Hepatoprotective
Citation
FERRAZ, A. C. et al. Hepatoprotective, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral activities of silymarin against mayaro virus infection. Antiviral Research, v. 194, artigo 105168, out. 2021. Disponível em: <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166354221001583?via%3Dihub>. Acesso em: 11 out. 2022.