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Review
. 2017 Sep;162(9):2539-2551.
doi: 10.1007/s00705-017-3417-y. Epub 2017 May 25.

Flavonoids: promising natural compounds against viral infections

Hovakim Zakaryan  1 , Erik Arabyan  2 , Adrian Oo  3 , Keivan Zandi  3   4
Affiliations
Review

Flavonoids: promising natural compounds against viral infections

Hovakim Zakaryan et al. Arch Virol. 2017 Sep.

Abstract

Flavonoids are widely distributed as secondary metabolites produced by plants and play important roles in plant physiology, having a variety of potential biological benefits such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral activity. Different flavonoids have been investigated for their potential antiviral activities and several of them exhibited significant antiviral properties in in vitro and even in vivo studies. This review summarizes the evidence for antiviral activity of different flavonoids, highlighting, where investigated, the cellular and molecular mechanisms of action on viruses. We also present future perspectives on therapeutic applications of flavonoids against viral infections.

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Conflict of interest statement

This study is supported by the RA MES State Committee of Science, in the frames of the research projects 15RF-081 and 16YR-1F064. All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Basic structure of various flavonoids
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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