In vivo efficacy of ganciclovir by using single-walled carbon nanotubes as a drug carrier against infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus in mandarin fish

Infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus (ISKNV) cause a high mortality disease which leads to a significant economic loss on mandarin fish in China. At present, there is no effective drug against this fatal disease because of several impenetrable barriers (cell, skin and gastrointestinal tract). In this study, we selected ganciclovir for the treatment of ISKNV and choose single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as ganciclovir carrier by immersion bath on mandarin fish infected with ISKNV. After 7 d post-infection, cumulative mortality was 14.75% and infection rate was 26.55% in naked ganciclovir group (40 mg/L). Meanwhile, cumulative mortality of 32.50% and infection rate of 15.30% were observed in G-SWCNTs group (20 mg/L). In the control group, cumulative mortality was 88.75% and the infection rate was 100%. At 6 h post-infection, the concentration of ganciclovir was detected to be 34.58 mu g/g in naked ganciclovir group (20 mg/L). And in G-SWCNTs groups (10 mg/L) at 6 h, the concentration of ganciclovir was 39.35 mu g/g. Besides, the time detention of ganciclovir in G-SWCNTs group was significantly extended compared with the naked ganciclovir group in the same dosage. Moreover, enzyme activities, complement (C3) content and immune-related genes expression were used to verify the enhancement effect induced in G-SWCNTs groups, herein all these mentioned activities reached the highest level at 3 days post-treatment. The results showed that ganciclovir-SWCNTs can be a plausible candidate for preventing and controlling ISKNV among farmed mandarin fish.