Abstract from Fourth National Congress of Virology with International Participation /Days of Virology in Bulgaria Sofia, May 18th - 20th, 2016

Petia Angelova, Anton Hinkov, Venelin Tsvetkov, Kalina Shishkova, Daniel Todorov, Stoyan Shishkov

Laboratory of Virology, Faculty of Biology, University of Sofia ‘‘St. Kliment Ohridski’’

Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) causes recurrent, painful genital ulcers In newborn infection is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Prolonged treatment with commonly used nucleoside analogues leads to the selection of resistant strains. Compounds of natural origin is an area with great potential. Species of the genus Nepeta are widely used in folk medicine because of their antispasmodic, expectorant, diuretic, antiseptic, anti-cough, anti-asthmatic and febrifuge activities.

We studied the antiviral activity of the extract water from Nepeta nuda L., derived from in vivo propagated plants. Maximum non-toxic concentration (MNC) was 4 mg/ml and 50% cytotoxic concentration (CC50) was 8 mg ml. The extract significantly inhibited the replication of HSV-2 - IC50 was 0.75 mg/ml. Production of the virus yield is suppresse d at 98%.