Assessment of a Flavone-Polysaccharide Based Prescription for Treating Duck Virus Hepatitis

Because polysaccharide and flavone ingredients display good antiviral activity, we developed a flavone/polysaccharide-containing prescription that would be effective against duck viral hepatitis (DVH) and investigated its hepatoprotective effects. Flavones were derived from Hypericum japonicum (HJF) (entire herb of Hypericum japonicum Thunb) and Salvia plebeia (SPF) (entire herb of Salvia plebeia R. Br.), and polysaccharides were derived from Radix Rehmanniae Recens (RRRP) (dried root of Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch). This prescription combination was based on the theory of syndrome differentiation and treatment in traditional Chinese veterinary medicine. In vitro and in vivo experiments were conducted using the three single ingredients compared to the combined HRS prescription to determine their anti-duck hepatitis A viral (anti-DHAV) activity. The results showed that all experimental conditions displayed anti-DHAV activity, but the HRS prescription presented the best effect. To further investigate the hepatoprotective effect of the HRS prescription on DHAV-induced hepatic injury, we tested the mortality rate, the hepatic pathological severity score, plasma biochemical indexes of hepatic function, blood DHAV gene expression levels and peroxidation damage evaluation indexes and then analyzed correlations among these indexes. The results demonstrated that the HRS prescription significantly decreased the mortality rate, reduced the severity of hepatic injury, decreased the hepatic pathological severity score, depressed blood DHAV gene expression levels, and returned the indexes of hepatic function and peroxidation almost to a normal level. These results indicate that the HRS prescription confers an outstanding hepatoprotective effect, and we expect that it will be developed into a new candidate anti-DHAV drug.