Study on Baicalein and Genistein to Inhibit Human Cytomegalovirus Infection in Human Astrocyte

There are no specific ways to prevent and cure human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection to date. We investigate the effect and mechanism of baicalein (BAI) and genistein (GEN) used as a drug to inhibit HCMV infection in human astrocyte(AS). RT-qPCR was used to detect the expression changes of viral IE1,IE2 genes. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assay (ChIP) was used to detect the expression change of major immediate early promoter (MIEP). RT-qPCR results showed that compared with HCMV group, 20 μmol/L BAI+HCMV,HCMV+BAI group, and 10 μmol/L GEN+HCMV,HCMV+GEN group can down-regulate the IE1,IE2 genes expressions. ChIP results showed that compared with HCMV group, 20 μmol/L BAI+HCMV,HCMV+BAI group, and 10 μmol/L GEN+HCMV and HCMV+GEN group can reduce histone acetylation of MIEP. A certain concentration of BAI or GEN can inhibit the human astrocyte’s IE1 and IE2 to some extent. The inhibiting mechanism may be that BAI and GEN can decrease the expression of IE1,IE2 genes and also inhibit histone acetylation of MIEP, thus decrease the expression of IE1,IE2 genes, which makes BAI and GEN inhibit viral proliferation.