Hypericin-loaded graphene oxide protects ducks against a novel duck reovirus

Novel duck reovirus (NDRV) disease is a serious infectious disease for poultry, for which no effective therapy has been established. Therefore, development of novel antivirals against NDRV is urgently needed. In present study, we developed a complex wherein hypericin (HY), which shows broad-spectrum antiviral activity, was loaded onto graphene oxide (GO), which has a high drug-loading capacity and low cytotoxicity. The antiviral activity of the complex (GO/HY) was studied in DF-1 cells and in ducklings infected with the NDRV TH11 strain. GO/HY showed a dose-dependent inhibition of NDRV replication, which may be attributed to direct virus inactivation or inhibition of virus attachment. Western blotting and indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) showed markedly suppressed protein expression in GO/HY-treated NDRV-infected DF-1 cells. Moreover, GO/HY prolonged the survival time of the ducklings by reducing pathological lesions caused by the infection and inhibiting viral replication in the liver and lungs. These results suggest that GO/HY has antiviral activity against NDRV both in vitro and in vivo.