与达菲比肩 很臭很强大的流感新药

　　

生物通报道，新流感H1N1的疫情正在持续，与此同时，这一疫情催促着科学家们加快抗流感新药的研发进程，台湾高雄医科大学的科学家宣称，一种天然的药物具有杀死新流感H1N1的功效，药效比目前使用的抗流感处方药更好，相关成果文章Influenza A (H1N1) Antiviral and Cytotoxic Agents from Ferula assa-foetida将公布在９月２５日的《Journal of Natural Products》 上。

 

有趣的是，这组新发现的化合物来源于一种气味难闻的植物体内，这种植物被称为：阿魏（Ferula assa-foetida），主要在中国大陆、伊朗和阿富汗地区生长，因含有难闻的气味而被称为“魔鬼之粪”植物。

 

高雄医科大学的张荣芳和杨陈指出，在1918流感大流行期间，人们就曾使用这种难闻的植物来治疗流感，可惜，一直没有人确定这种植物抗流感病毒的天然化合物。他们尝试从阿魏中提取化合物，实验结果表明，一些化合物对流感病毒具有良好的抵抗力，有几种能杀死H1N1病毒的强效抗病毒化合物，比目前应用的抗流感药物效果更佳。

 

这种独特的植物中的倍半萜烯香豆素有望作为研制新药的主要成份，抗击流感。

（生物通 小茜）

生物通推荐原文摘要

Influenza A (H1N1) Antiviral and Cytotoxic Agents from Ferula assa-foetida

 

Chia-Lin Lee†, Lien-Chai Chiang‡, Li-Hung Cheng†, Chih-Chuang Liaw§, Mohamed H. Abd El-Razek , Fang-Rong Chang*† and Yang-Chang Wu*†

Graduate Institute of Natural Products, College of Pharmacy, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan, Republic of China, Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan, Republic of China, Graduate Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan, Republic of China, and Chemistry of Natural Products Department, National Research Center, Cairo, 12622, Egypt

J. Nat. Prod., Article ASAP

DOI: 10.1021/np900158f

【Abstract】

Two new sesquiterpene coumarins, designated 5′-acetoxy-8′-hydroxyumbelliprenin (1) and 10′R-acetoxy-11′-hydroxyumbelliprenin (2), and a new diterpene, 15-hydroxy-6-en-dehydroabietic acid (3), along with 27 known compounds, were isolated from a CHCl3-soluble extract of Ferula assa-foetida through bioassay-guided fractionation. The structures of the new metabolites 1−3 were identified by spectroscopic data interpretation and by the Mosher ester method. Compounds 4 and 6−13 showed greater potency against influenza A virus (H1N1) (IC50 0.26−0.86 μg/mL) than amantadine (IC50 0.92 μg/mL), and 11 exhibited the best potency (IC50 0.51, 2.6, and 3.4 μg/mL) of these compounds against the HepG2, Hep3B, and MCF-7 cancer cell lines, respectively.