Skip Navigation



eCAM Advance Access published online on January 7, 2008
eCAM, doi:10.1093/ecam/nem180
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Chang, J.-M.
Right arrow Articles by Hung, L.-M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Chang, J.-M.
Right arrow Articles by Hung, L.-M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?


© 2007 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The Anti-hepatitis B Virus Activity of Boehmeria nivea Extract in HBV-viremia SCID Mice

Jia-Ming Chang1, Kai-Ling Huang2, Thomas Ta-Tung Yuan1, Yiu-Kay Lai2,3 and Le-Mei Hung1

1Division of Research and Development, Development Center for Biotechnology, Xizhi City, Taipei County, Taiwan 221, 2Department of Life Sciences and Institute of Biotechnology, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan 30013 and 3Department of Bioresources, Da-Yeh University, Changhua, Taiwan 515, R.O.C.

Boehmeria nivea extract (BNE) is widely used in southern Taiwan as a folk medicine for hepato-protection and hepatitis treatment. In previous studies, we demonstrated that BNE could reduce the supernatant hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in HBV-producing HepG2 2.2.15 cells. In the present study, we established an animal model of HBV viremia and used it to validate the efficacy of BNE in vivo. In this animal model, serum HBV DNA and HBsAg were elevated in accordance with tumor growth. To evaluate the anti-HBV activity of BNE, HBV-viremia mice were built up after one subcutaneous inoculation of HepG2 2.2.15 tumor cells in severe combined immunodeficiency mice over 13 days. The levels of serum HBV DNA were elevated around 105–106 copies per milliliter. Both oral and intraperitoneal administration of BNE were effective at inhibiting the production of HBsAg and HBV DNA, whereas tumor growth was not affected by all test articles. Intraperitoneal administration of BNE appeared to have greater potential to inhibit serum HBV DNA levels compared with oral administration under the same dosage. Notably, reduced natural killer cell activity was also observed after high dosage of BNE administration, and this correlated with reduced serum HBV DNA. In conclusion, BNE exhibited potential anti-HBV activity in an animal model of HBV viremia.

Keywords: HBsAg – HBV DNA – SCID – NK cells – folk medicine

For reprints and all correspondence: Dr Jia-Ming Chang, Division of Research and Development, Development Center for Biotechnology, 101, Ln 169, Kangning St., Xizhi City, Taipei County, Taiwan 221, R.O.C. Tel: +886-2-26956933 ext. 5102; Fax: +886-2-6615-0063; E-mail: jiaming{at}ntu.edu.tw

Received April 30, 2007; accepted December 5, 2007


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.