MECHANISM AND QUANTIFICATION OF THE ANTIVIRAL ACTIVITY OF ACTIVE COMPOUNDS ISOLATED FROM MARINE INVERTEBRATES AND RELATED MICROORGANISMS.

• Grant number: 11/10355-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2011
• End date: March 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Clarice Weis Arns
• Grantee: Márcia Mercês Aparecida Bianchi dos Santos
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Natural products isolated from marine organisms has been the subject of investigations because of its potent biological activities. However, knowledge about natural products from Brazilian coast is still limited. The purpose of this project is to conduct tests to assess the antiviral activity of marine invertebrates and microorganisms extracts in the search for biologically active compounds. With this intention, experiments will be developed initially to evaluate the efficiency of these extracts in a single dose with different viral concentrations. The extracts able to inhibit the viral replication will be then evaluated about its mechanism of action, investigating in which step of viral replication the compounds are able to act and / or if these compounds have virucidal activity. Moreover, the efficiency of replication inhibition will be also evaluated to ensure the absence of resistant variants susceptible for selection. Both mechanism of action and efficiency of replication inhibition will be evaluated by RT-PCR real time, a sensitive method for quantification of viral RNA. The results of this work will produce a database with active antiviral extracts for future isolation and identification of these substances.