Curcumin inhibits hepatitis C virus replication via suppressing the Akt-SREBP-1 pathway

Kim, KyeongJin; Kim, Kook Hwan; Kim, Hye Young; Cho, Hyun Kook; Sakamoto, Naoya; Cheong, JaeHun

doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2009.12.019

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Volume 584, Issue 4 , Pages 707-712, 19 February 2010

Curcumin inhibits hepatitis C virus replication via suppressing the Akt-SREBP-1 pathway

Edited by Lukas Huber

KyeongJin Kim
- Department of Molecular Biology, College of Natural Sciences, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea
Kook Hwan Kim
- Department of Molecular Biology, College of Natural Sciences, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea
Hye Young Kim
- Department of Molecular Biology, College of Natural Sciences, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea
Hyun Kook Cho
- Department of Molecular Biology, College of Natural Sciences, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea
Naoya Sakamoto
- Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan
JaeHun Cheong
- Department of Molecular Biology, College of Natural Sciences, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea
- Corresponding author. Fax: +82 51 513 9258.

Received 20 October 2009; received in revised form 3 December 2009; accepted 12 December 2009. published online 17 December 2009.

Abstract

A polyphenolic compound from the curry spice turmeric, curcumin, is known to show anti-viral activity against the influenza virus, adenovirus, coxsackievirus, and the human immunodeficiency virus. However, it remains to be determined whether curcumin can inhibit the replication of hepatitis C virus (HCV). In this study, we showed that curcumin decreases HCV gene expression via suppression of the Akt-SREBP-1 activation, not by NF-κB pathway. The combination of curcumin and IFNα exerted profound inhibitory effects on HCV replication. Collectively, our results indicate that curcumin can suppress HCV replication in vitro and may be potentially useful as novel anti-HCV reagents.

Keywords: Akt, Curcumin, HCV, NS5A, SREBP-1