Evaluation on the antiviral activity of ribavirin against infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus in epithelioma papulosum cyprini cells.

Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) causes high mortality in several economically important salmonid fishes, but there is no approved therapy up to now. To address the urgent need for therapeutics to combat IHNV infection, we investigate the anti-IHNV activities of 14 common antiviral agents using epithelioma papulosum cyprini (EPC) cells in this study. Among these agents, ribavirin shows the highest inhibition on IHNV replication, with an inhibitory percentage of 99.88%. And the 72 h half maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC₅₀) of ribavirin on IHNV glycoprotein is 0.40 mg/L. In addition, ribavirin significantly inhibits apoptosis and cellular morphological damage induced by IHNV. Mechanistically, ribavirin could damage the viral particle of IHNV. Moreover, ribavirin could be used for prevention of IHNV infection. Therefore, ribavirin is considered to develop as a promising agent to treat IHNV infection.