In vitro inhibitory activity against HPV of the monoterpenoid zinc tetra-ascorbo-camphorate

Ralph Sydney Mboumba Bouassa; Bernard Gombert; Gabin Mwande-Maguene; Aurèle Mannarini; Laurent Bélec

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07232

In vitro inhibitory activity against HPV of the monoterpenoid zinc tetra-ascorbo-camphorate

Heliyon. 2021 Jun 6;7(6):e07232. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07232. eCollection 2021 Jun.

Authors

Ralph Sydney Mboumba Bouassa^{1

2

3}, Bernard Gombert⁴, Gabin Mwande-Maguene⁵, Aurèle Mannarini⁴, Laurent Bélec^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Ecole Doctorale Régionale d'Infectiologie Tropicale de Franceville, BP: 246, Franceville, Gabon.
² Laboratoire de Virologie, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, 75015, Paris, France.
³ Faculté de Médecine Paris Descartes, Université de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 75006, Paris, France.
⁴ MGB Pharma, 30900, Nîmes, France.
⁵ Faculté de Sciences, Département de Chimie et Biochimie, Université des Sciences et Techniques de Masuku (USTM), BP: 901, Franceville, Gabon.

Abstract

Zinc tetra-ascorbo-camphorate (or drug "C14") is a synthetic monoterpenoid derivative that has potent anti-HIV-1 activity in vitro. In this study, we evaluated the in vitro antiviral properties of C14 against human papillomavirus (HPV). Inhibition assay of HPV-16-pseudovirus (PsVs) adsorption on COS-7 cells by C14 was used. C14 inhibited HPV-16-PsVs adsorption with IC₅₀ ranging between 2.9 and 8.3 μM and therapeutic indexes between >410 to >3,300. Pretreatment of COS-7 cells with C14 before addition of HPV-16-PsV was associated with more potent anti-HPV activity than simultaneous deposition on COS-7 of HPV-16-PsV and C14, suggesting that C14 is more effective in preventing HPV attachment to target cells than post-HPV adsorption viral events. Overall, these in vitro studies suggest that the monoterpenoid zinc tetra-ascorbo-camphorate molecule may be suitable for further clinical evaluations as potential microbicide or therapeutic drug.

Keywords: Camphor derivates; HPV; HPV-16; Inhibition assay; L-ascorbic acid conjugate; Pseudovirus; Terpenoid; Zn metal.