A flavone-polysaccharide based prescription attenuates the mitochondrial dysfunction induced by duck hepatitis A virus type 1

The principal target organ of duck hepatitis A virus type 1 (DHAV-1) is duckling liver, which is an energy-intensive organ and plays important roles in body's energy metabolism and conversion. As the "power house" of the hepatocytes, mitochondria provide more than 90% of the energy. However, mitochondria are much vulnerable to the oxidative stress for their rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Although previous researches have demonstrated that DHAV-1 could induce the oxidative stress in the serum of the infected ducklings, no related study on the mitochondria during the pathological process of DVH has been reported by far. To address this issue, we examined the HE stained tissue pathological slices, detected the hepatic SOD, CAT and GPX activities and MDA contents and analyzed the ATP content, mitochondrial ultrastructure and the mitochondrial SOD, GPX activities and MDA content in the liver tissues. The results showed that the hepatic redox status was significantly disturbed so that causing the mitochondrial dysfunction, ATP depletion and mitochondrial oxidative stress during the process of the DHAV-1 infection, and a prescription formulated with Hypericum japonicum flavone, Radix Rehmanniae Recens polysaccharide and Salvia plebeia flavone (HRS), which had been demonstrated with good anti-oxidative activity in serum, could effectively alleviate the hepatic injury and the oxidative stress in liver tissue induced by DHAV-1 thus alleviating the mitochondrial injury and oxidative stress. In a word, this research discovers the oxidative stress induced mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress during the DVH pathological process and demonstrates HRS exerts good anti-oxidative activity in liver tissue to protect mitochondria against reactive oxygen species (ROS).