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Review
. 2020 Nov 16:12:503-515.
doi: 10.2147/JEP.S273120. eCollection 2020.

Antiviral Effects of Oleandrin

Robert A Newman  1   2 , K Jagannadha Sastry  3 , Ravit Arav-Boger  4 , Hongyi Cai  5 , Rick Matos  6 , Robert Harrod  7
Affiliations
Review

Antiviral Effects of Oleandrin

Robert A Newman et al. J Exp Pharmacol. .

Abstract

Over the past 15 years, investigators have reported on the utility and safety of cardiac glycosides for numerous health benefits including those as treatments for malignant disease, stroke-mediated ischemic injury and certain neurodegenerative diseases. In addition to those, there is a growing body of evidence for novel antiviral effects of selected cardiac glycoside molecules. One unique cardiac glycoside, oleandrin derived from Nerium oleander, has been reported to have antiviral activity specifically against 'enveloped' viruses including HIV and HTLV-1. Importantly, a recent publication has presented in vitro evidence for oleandrin's ability to inhibit production of infectious virus particles when used for treatment prior to, as well as after infection by SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. This review will highlight the known in vitro antiviral effects of oleandrin as well as present previously unpublished effects of this novel cardiac glycoside against Ebola virus, Cytomegalovirus, and Herpes simplex viruses.

Keywords: K-ATPase; Na; Nerium oleander; antiviral therapy; oleandrin; virus.

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Conflict of interest statement

Robert A. Newman is the Chief Science Officer and a Director of Phoenix Biotechnology, Inc., reports personal fees from Phoenix Biotechnology, Inc., during the conduct of the study, and has a patent issued: 10,729,735. K Jagannadha Sastry reports personal fees from Phoenix Biotechnology Inc., during the conduct of the study and outside the submitted work. Ravit Arav-Boger reports grants from Nerium Biotechnology, during the conduct of the study and has a patent, Inhibition of Human Cytomegalovirus Replication by Novel Digitoxin Analogs Depends on Specific Alpha Isoforms of the Na-K-ATPase Pump, issued to US patent application US20160143934. Rick Matos is a Director and consultant for Phoenix Biotechnology. Robert Harrod reports personal fees from Phoenix Biotechnology, Inc., outside the submitted work. The other authors report no other potential conflicts of interest for this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Anti-HIV activity of oleandrin. This diagram depicts production of virus particles from oleandrin treated HIV-infected cells. During virus production, the viral envelope protein is synthesized in the cytoplasm and transported to the surface of the infected cells. Oleandrin inhibits this process making fewer envelope protein molecules available for incorporation on to the progeny virus particles during their assembly and budding out of the infected cells.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Oleandrin inhibits HTLV-1 infectivity and virological synapse formation. The figure illustrates the intercellular transmission of infectious HTLV-1 particles across the virological synapse (VS). The polarization of HTLV-1 p19-Gag core particles along cellular microtubules toward the intercellular junction is indicated. The intercellular conduits/nanotubules which facilitate the trafficking of virus particles between an HTLV-1-infected cell and an uninfected target CD4+ T-cell are shown. The viral glycan-rich biofilm surrounding the VS is also depicted. Oleandrin inhibits the incorporation of the viral glycoprotein into mature extracellular HTLV-1 particles budding from an infected cell and could also inhibit the synthesis of the viral biofilm to prevent VS-formation.19
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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