Turmeric compound could kill alpha-level coronavirus TGEV found in piglets

Aficionados of Indian food already know about the medicinal properties of turmeric. Now researchers have found that a natural compound found in this commonly used spice could help eliminate certain viruses.

This compound in turmeric, called "curcumin", can prevent Transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) -- an alpha-group coronavirus that infects pigs -- from infecting cells, said the study published in the Journal of General Virology.

At higher doses, the compound was also found to kill virus particles.

Infection with TGEV causes a disease called transmissible gastroenteritis in piglets, which is characterised by diarrhoea, severe dehydration and death.

TGEV is highly infectious and is invariably fatal in piglets younger than two weeks, thus posing a major threat to the global swine industry.

There are currently no approved treatments for alpha-coronaviruses and although there is a vaccine for TGEV, it is not effective in preventing the spread of the virus.

To determine the potential antiviral properties of curcumin, the research team treated experimental cells with various concentrations of the compound, before attempting to infect them with TGEV.

They found that higher concentrations of curcumin reduced the number of virus particles in the cell culture.

The research suggests that curcumin affects TGEV in a number of ways: by directly killing the virus before it is able to infect the cell, by integrating with the viral envelope to 'inactivate' the virus, and by altering the metabolism of cells to prevent viral entry.

"Curcumin has a significant inhibitory effect on TGEV adsorption step and a certain direct inactivation effect, suggesting that curcumin has great potential in the prevention of TGEV infection," said Lilan Xie, lead author of the study and researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Bioengineering in China.

Curcumin has been shown to inhibit the replication of some types of virus, including dengue virus, hepatitis B and Zika virus.

The compound has also been found to have a number of significant biological effects, including antitumor, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial activities.

Curcumin was chosen for this research due to having low side effects according to Xie.

The researchers now hope to continue their research in vivo, using an animal model to assess whether the inhibiting properties of curcumin would be seen in a more complex system.

"Further studies will be required to evaluate the inhibitory effect in vivo and explore the potential mechanisms of curcumin against TGEV, which will lay a foundation for the comprehensive understanding of the antiviral mechanisms and application of curcumin," said Xie.