Antiviral Activities of Green Tea Components against Grouper Iridovirus Infection In Vitro and In Vivo

Abstract

(1) Background: Singapore grouper iridovirus (SGIV) can cause extensive fish deaths. Therefore, developing treatments to combat virulent SGIV is of great economic importance to address this challenge to the grouper aquaculture industry. Green tea is an important medicinal and edible plant throughout the world. In this study, we evaluated the use of green tea components against SGIV infection. (2) Methods: The safe working concentrations of green tea components were identified by cell viability detection and light microscopy. Additionally, the antiviral activity of each green tea component against SGIV infection was determined with light microscopy, an aptamer (Q5c)-based fluorescent molecular probe, and reverse transcription quantitative PCR. (3) Results: The safe working concentrations of green tea components were green tea aqueous extract (GTAE) ≤ 100 μg/mL, green tea polyphenols (TP) ≤ 10 μg/mL, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) ≤ 12 μg/mL, (-)-epigallocatechin (EGC) ≤ 10 μg/mL, (-)-epicatechin gallate (EGC) ≤ 5 μg/mL, and (-)-epicatechin (EC) ≤ 50 μg/mL. The relative antiviral activities of the green tea components determined in terms of MCP gene expression were TP > EGCG > GTAE > ECG > EGC > EC, with inhibition rates of 99.34%, 98.31%, 98.23%, 88.62%, 73.80%, and 44.31%, respectively. The antiviral effect of aptamer-Q5c was consistent with the results of qPCR. Also, TP had an excellent antiviral effect in vitro, wherein the mortality of fish in only the SGIV-injection group and TP + SGIV-injection group were 100% and 11.67%, respectively. (4) Conclusions: In conclusion, our results suggest that green tea components have effective antiviral properties against SGIV and may be candidate agents for the effective treatment and control of SGIV infections in grouper aquaculture.