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Antiviral compounds obtained from microalgae commonly used as carotenoid sources

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Abstract

Pressurized liquid extraction (PLE), an environmentally friendly technique, has been used to obtain antiviral compounds from microalgae commonly used as carotenoid sources: Haematococcus pluvialis and Dunaliella salina. The antiviral properties of PLE extracts (hexane, ethanol and water) were evaluated against herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) at different stages during viral infection. Pretreatment of Vero cells with 75 μg mL−1 of H. pluvialis ethanol extract inhibited virus infection by approximately 85%, whereas the same concentration of water and hexane extracts reduced the virus infectivity 75% and 50%, respectively. D. salina extracts were less effective than H. pluvialis extracts and presented a different behaviour since water and ethanol extracts produced a similar virus inhibition (65%). Moreover, H. pluvialis ethanol extract was also the most effective against HSV-1 intracellular replication. The antiviral activity of water PLE extracts was found to correlate with polysaccharides since the polysaccharide-rich fraction isolated from these extracts showed higher antiviral activity than the original water extracts. A gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) characterization of the H. pluvialis ethanol extract showed the antiviral activity of this extract could be partially related with the presence of short-chain fatty acids, although other compounds could be involved in this activity; meanwhile, in the case of D. salina ethanol extract other compounds seemed to be implied, such as: β-ionone, neophytadiene, phytol, palmitic acid and α-linolenic acid. The results demonstrate the use of PLE allows obtaining antiviral compounds from microalgae used as carotenoids sources, which gives the microalgae biomass an added value.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been financed by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (AGL2005-06726-C04), the programme CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 (CDS2007-00063) and the regional programme ALIBIRD-CM S-0505/AGR-0153 from the Comunidad de Madrid, Spain.

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Correspondence to Susana Santoyo.

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Santoyo, S., Jaime, L., Plaza, M. et al. Antiviral compounds obtained from microalgae commonly used as carotenoid sources. J Appl Phycol 24, 731–741 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-011-9692-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-011-9692-1

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