Evaluation of Mangrove Plants as Putative HIV-Protease Inhibitors

Ethanol (Direct) extracts of mangrove plants, namely, Avicennia officinalis Linn. and Rhizophora mucronata Lam. were included for the present in vitro study. Pepsin was used as a substitute for HIV-protease to evaluate inhibitory activity of these extracts, as pepsin has close resemblance with HIV-protease in proteolytic activity. R. mucronata revealed potent inhibitory activity than A. officinalis with IC50 value of 14.63 µg/mL. In our earlier study, R. mucronata exerted anti-HIV activity via multiple mechanisms of action; viz., interference with the gp120 / CD4 interaction and inhibition of HIV-reverse transcriptase. In the present study, it also showed potent inhibitory activity against pepsin enzyme (indirectly against HIV-protease) which may be due its high flavonoids content.