The Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (President Jin-yong Lee), the longest-standing doctoral team at the Oriental Medicine Technology Application Center (first author Eunbin Kwon, Dr. Wii Lee), together with Dr. Choon-hwan Choi from the Gyeonggi Provincial Institute of Economics and Sciences Bio Center, demonstrated the antiviral effect from the vine stem-derived ingredient ‘B-Cytin B’. It confirmed on the 28th that it has developed a material for treating influenza virus infection.
Bicytin B is a substance commonly found in grape vines and is an antibacterial and antioxidant that is produced when plants are injured or attacked by pathogens.
In oriental medicine, grapes have been used to treat fruits, seeds, stems, leaves, and even roots. In particular, stems are known to have pharmacological effects such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and cardiovascular disease prevention.
However, unlike its efficacy, vine stems were being treated as byproducts lacking economic feasibility in farms.
The research team conducted an animal experiment using vine stem bicytin B component, △Reduced virus-caused mortality, alleviated weight loss, reduced lung inflammation, △Suppressed virus movement of infected cells, △Tamiflu-resistant influenza antiviral efficacy, △Excessive immune response. It was confirmed that the expression of inflammatory cytokines causing
The vine stem used in this study is a natural product whose efficacy and safety have already been proven.
Dr. Choi Jang-gi said, “Recently, a resistant virus has been reported against drugs commonly prescribed in clinical practice, such as Tamiflu, and the need for new therapeutic agents is emerging due to the continuous mutation of the virus. We will continue research on antiviral drugs based on oriental medicine that can effectively respond to new and variant viruses by using
Director Jin-yong Lee said, “It is an exemplary R&D case of discovering oriental medicine-based antiviral candidates, which are high value-added products, using vine stems that are difficult to process at farms. I will do my best,” he said.
This research was carried out with support from the main project of the Korean Medical Research Institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT and the support project for young and mid-level researchers promoted by the National Research Foundation of Korea.
By Kim Young-jun, staff reporter kyj85@etnews.com
