Amantadine, a promising therapeutic agent against viral encephalopathy and retinopathy

Abstract Outbreaks of viral encephalopathy and retinopathy (VER) in marine and freshwater species severely devastate the aquaculture worldwide. The causative agent of VER is nervous necrosis virus (NNV), which mainly infects the early developmental stages of fish, limiting the effectiveness of vaccines. To counter this case, the anti‐NNV potentials of nine drugs with broad‐spectrum antiviral activity were explored using ribavirin as a positive drug. Toxicity of the selected drugs to SSN‐1 cells and grouper was firstly evaluated to determine the safety concentrations. For screening in vitro, amantadine and oseltamivir phosphate can relieve the cytopathic effects and inhibit NNV replication with the 90% inhibitory concentrations (IC90) of 38.74 and 106.75 mg/L, respectively. Amantadine has a stronger anti‐NNV activity than ribavirin at the with‐ and post‐NNV infection stages, indicating that it is a potential therapeutic agent against VER by acting directly on NNV. Similarly, amantadine also has a strong anti‐NNV activity in vivo with the IC90 of 27.91 mg/L at the 7 days post‐infection, while that was 73.25 mg/L for ribavirin. Following exposure to amantadine (40 mg/L) and ribavirin (100 mg/L) for 7 days, the survival rates of NNV‐infected grouper were increased to 44% and 39%, respectively. The maximum amantadine content (11.88 mg/Kg) in grouper brain was reached following exposure for 24 hr, and amantadine can be quickly excreted from fish, reducing the risk of drug residue. Results so far indicated that amantadine is a promising therapeutic agent against NNV in aquaculture, providing an effective strategy for VER control at the early developmental stages of fish.