HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS (HIV-1) REVERSE RANSCRIPTASE INHIBITORYACTIVITY OF ECLIPTA ALBA (L) LEAVES CRUDE EXTRACTS

ABSTRACT

Highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) is the current HIV/AIDS treatment modality. Despite the fact that HAART is very effective in suppressing HIV-1 replication and reducing the mortality of HIV/AIDS patients, it has become increasingly clear that HAART does not offer an ultimate cure to HIV/AIDS. The high cost of the HAART regimen has impeded its delivery to over 90% of the HIV/AIDS population in the world. This reality has urgently called for the need to develop inexpensive alternative anti-HIV/AIDS therapy. This need has further manifested by recent clinical trial failures in anti-HIV-1 vaccines and microbicides.  In the current study, we characterized a panel of extracts of traditional medicinal plants for their activities against HIV-1 replication. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the in vitro anti- HIV activity of Eclipta alba plant extracts. Extracts were prepared from dried leaves in Hexane, Chloroform, Ethyl acetate, Acetone and Methanol. Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) isolated from healthy donors by ficoll-hypaque density gradient centrifugation method. A toxicity study was performed on all crude extracts by MTT assay using PBMCs isolated from whole blood. HIV-1 RT inhibition activity of the all solvent extracts of Eclipta alba was determined by a RetrsoSys HIV-1 RT activity kit (Innovagen,Sweden). The aerial parts of Eclipta alba extracts are shows anti-HIV-1 activity and this plant has great potential for developing useful drugs.

Key words: HIV, Eclipta alba, PBMCs, HIV-1 RT, Cytotoxicity..

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