The study aims to create a low-cost drug to combat the virus
In 2019, nearly 290,000 people died from Hepatitis C, according to the WHO
A team of researchers from the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) has co-discovered that a enzyme present in the white mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), called tyrosinase, has antiviral activity against hepatitis C virus by an inhibition mechanism different from that of the usual drugs.
This finding, carried out ‘in vitro’ and published in the journal ‘Pharmaceuticals’, could contribute to the development of promising therapeutic agents. The researchers have shown that mushroom tyrosinase, and particularly an isoform, a variant of the enzyme itself, are efficient at micromolar concentrations, that is, one millionth of the mass of the molecules. Are completely inhibit the replication of the hepatitis C virus in human liver cells. In fact, the isoform has an antiviral capacity up to ten times higher than that of the commercial drug ‘ibavirin, currently used in combination in many treatments.
Study to get a drug
The research, already patented, continues with the aim of get a drug against hepatitis C, which in 2019 killed about 290,000 people, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, the research group points out that this new mechanism of viral inhibition of mushroom tyrosinase is postulated as a broad-spectrum pharmacological agent.
“The inhibition of virus proteases occurs through a mbiocatalytic mechanism based on a selective hydroxylation of surface tyrosines of proteins involved in virus replication”, explains José Miguel Palomo, a CSIC researcher at the Institute of Catalysis and Petrochemicals (ICP-CSIC), who has co-directed the study in collaboration with the researchers Olga Abián and Adrián Velázquez from the University of Zaragoza.
In addition, the results obtained in this study have shown that directly extracted enzymes of the mushroom they do not present toxicity in hepatic cells, therefore, they could be used as proteins for the treatment of hepatitis C infection. Therefore, this tyrosinase preparation could become a promising therapeutic agent.
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“We could provide a drug very low cost for the treatment of the viruswhich could be used as a substitute or in combination with other drugs,” says Palomo, who insists on the great cost reduction that manufacturing a drug from mushroom tyrosinases would entail, since current treatments cost around 60,000 euros. per patient.
The research group seeks to continue advancing and developing essays in vivo of this type of compounds to demonstrate their potential as a drug. To do this, they say, they are open to collaboration with other interested research groups, as well as with private companies.