Abstract

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a main factor that causes many infective diseases, of which the drugs used for the treatment are limited. Our research revealed that curcumin could significantly inhibit HCMV in vitro. In the present study, high and middling dosage curcumin groups could significantly reduce HCMV DNA loads. Meanwhile, no significant differences were explored between ganciclovir (GCV) and high and middling dosage curcumin groups, and low dosage curcumin group did not show any significant difference from infected model group as well. The apoptosis ratio of high and middling dosage curcumin groups decreased significantly when compared with infected model group. The apoptosis ratio of low dosage curcumin group was 4.56 ± 0.25, which did not show any difference when compared with infected model group. In summary, curcumin could be a suitable candidate for the development of a new antiviral drug for the treatment of HCMV infections.

Key words: Curcumin, human cytomegalovirus, antiviral activity.