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Liquorice may tackle SARS

http://info.nature.com/cgi-bin24/DM/y/ezt0Bh7cR0C30Byj0A1


After trying all sorts of compounds researchers say root extract looks promising.

13 June 2003

HELEN R. PILCHER


Liquorice's distinctive flavour is from glycyrrhizin.



Liquorice may prove an unlikely ally in the fight against sudden acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS). In the lab at least, an extract of the
plant's root blocks the SARS virus from growing inside cells, new
research reveals1.

The study is part of an ongoing search for a treatment for SARS. The
flu-like disease has claimed more than 750 lives since it emerged last
year in Guangdong Province, China.

High doses of the liquorice extract, called glycyrrhizin, practically
wipe out the SARS virus in infected monkey cells, find virologist
Jindrich Cinatl of Frankfurt University Medical School, Germany and
his colleagues. The drug is more potent than ribavirin, the most
commonly used treatment for SARS.

Glycyrrhizin makes it difficult for the SARS virus to attach to and
invade a target cell, the team found. It also hinders virus
reproduction, slowing its spread from one cell to the next.

"We don't have many leads [for effective drugs] at this point, so this
is very exciting," says virologist Robert Baker from the US Army
Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort
Detrick, Maryland. Good nursing and hospital care are the best
treatments at present, he explains.

But glycyrrhizin has drawbacks: large amounts are needed to affect
SARS-infected cells. "It's unlikely to result in a treatment for the
disease," says biochemist Rolf Hilgenfeld who studies the virus at
Lübeck University, Germany. "I can't imagine swallowing a tablet that
big," he says.

Nonetheless, the compound may lead to the development of similar, more
potent drugs, argues Baker.

Broad search

Glycyrrhizin is the molecule responsible for liquorice's peculiar
flavour. It hampers the growth of other viruses, including herpes, and
helps restore liver function in patients with hepatitis C. It is
currently being assessed as a treatment for HIV infection, as it slows
the replication of the virus in cultured cells.

The liquorice extract is one of many candidate compounds being tested
against SARS. As the epidemic intensified, so too did efforts to find
effective drugs.

We will need some more experimental drugs to try

Rolf Hilgenfeld
Lübeck University

In the past two months, for example, Baker and other researchers at
USAMRIID have tested over 200,000 compounds, sent in from laboratories
across the world. "We're using a combination of brute force -
screening just about every compound we can get our hands on - and a
more rational approach - screening drugs that have already been
licensed," says Baker. The team has yet to publish its results.

Even if glycyrrhizin or similar drugs are found to work in culture,
they will still be a long way off the clinic. Researchers will need to
pin down how the compounds operate, and test them in human cells and
in animals. "We also need to work out how easily the drug gets into
people, how long it stays around and how quickly it's eliminated,"
says Baker.

Even then results can be disappointing when drugs are tested on
people. Ribavirin is losing popularity amongst Asian doctors who feel
it does not benefit SARS-infected patients.

"The research needs intensifying," says Hilgenfeld. "We are likely to
see a decline in the disease over the summer before probably coming
back in the winter - so we will need some more experimental drugs to
try."

References

1. Cinatl, J. et al. Glycyrrhizin, an active component of liquorice
roots, and replication of SARS-associated coronavirus. The Lancet,
361, 2045 - 2046, (2003). [20]|Homepage|


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