Antiviral effect of Artemisia aucheri aqueous extract on UL46 and US6 genes of HSV-1

HSV-1 is associated with oral lesions. Recently, anti-herpetic activity of different plant species has been investigated. In this study, the effects of Artemisia aucheri aqueous extract on the HSV-1 virus-infected Vero cells were assessed. The highest cell viability occurred in plant aqueous extracts was with a concentration of 75 μg/mL, 1–2 h before viral infection. The IC50 of the aqueous extract of 24.7 μg/ml was calculated. Most percentage of infected cell inhibition (89.6%) was with the chloroform fraction in concentration of 75 μg/ml, and the least percentage of infected cell inhibition (21.7%) was in concentration of 12.5 μg/ml with the ethyl acetate fraction in comparison with untreated control. Moreover, Q-PCR results revealed that the expression of genes UL46 and US6 were significantly reduced in the presence of different treatments utilized in the experiment. In conclusion, the present study proposes that aqueous extracts of medicinal plant Artemisia aucheri have anti-viral property and may be considered as a remedy for HSV-1 treatment.