Antiviral properties of fucoidan extracted from Sargassum Sp. against seasonal influenza

Abstract

Influenza is a major infectious disease, causing 5 million cases annually worldwide. Current influenza management uses annual vaccination and antiviral drugs, but prolonged use of antiviral could lead to resistance; thus, new antiviral options are needed. Fucoidan is a sulfated polysaccharide found in brown algae and has been found to have antiviral activity. In this study, fucoidan extracted from padina sp against seasonal influenza collected and cultured from i3L students. Newcastle disease virus was used as a model for influenza and sargassum instead of padina due to availability. TCID50 of NDV against MDCK cell culture were compared with fucoidan treated MDCK and virus. While 24-hour data showed a reduction of NDV TCID50 titer from 600 to 60, this finding's reliability is questionable due to the appearance of contamination in 48 hours. Keywords: