Virucidal activity of Moringa A from Moringa oleifera seeds against Influenza A Viruses by regulating TFEB

Influenza A viruses (IAVs) are highly contagious pathogens infecting human and numerous animals. The viruses cause millions of infection cases and thousands of deaths every year, making IAVs a continual threat to global health. Our study demonstrated the virucidal activity of Moringa A as a new compound from Moringa oleifera seeds against IAVs. It inhibits virus replication in host cells and protects infected cells from the cytopathic effect induced by IAVs. The EC50 and EC90 values of Moringa A for IAVs were 1.27 and 5.30 mu M, respectively, when RAW264.7 cells were infected at MOI of 1. The different treatment experiments revealed that Moringa A has a significant inhibitory effect on the IAVs both before and after drug addition. Moringa A was observed to decrease the inflammatory cytokines TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-113, and IFN-13 in H1N1 infected RAW264.7 cells. Finally, Moringa A was found to inhibit the expression and nuclear transfer of the cellular protein transcription factor EB (TFEB) and weaken the autophagy in infected cells, which could be an important antiviral mechanism. Our study demonstrates Moringa A has potent antiviral activity against IVAs, which could be due to the autophagy inhibition property.