title: Sulfation of polysaccharides generates potent and selective inhibitors of human immunodeficiency virus infection and replication in vitro.
abstract: The inhibitory effects of several polysaccharides, dextran, xylofuranan, and ribofuranan, and their sulfated counterparts on the infectivity and replication of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were examined by using an HTLV-I-carrying cell line, MT-4, in vitro. Dextran sulfate (Mw 34 X 10(3], xylofuranan sulfate, and ribofuranan sulfate completely prevented HIV-induced cytopathic effects (CPE) at concentrations greater than 10 micrograms/ml and dextran sulfate (Mw 7 X 10(3] at concentrations greater than 100 micrograms/ml. However, the non-sulfated compounds did not prevent them at any concentration tested. The anti-HIV effect of these polysaccharides was confirmed by measuring HIV-specific antigen expression in infected MT-4 cells. In cocultures with MOLT-4 and MOLT-4/HIVHTLV-IIIB cells, formation of multinucleated cells was completely inhibited in the presence of 100 micrograms/ml of these sulfated compounds. Dextran sulfate showed 20-30% growth inhibition of uninfected MT-4 cells at 1000 micrograms/ml but dextran sulfate, xylofuranan sulfate, and ribofuranan sulfate showed no effect on sulfated polysaccharides efficiently inhibited the reverse transcriptase activity of avian myeloblastosis virus and HIV.
mesh_terms: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D002460:Cell Line; D006678:HIV / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018894:Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors; D013431:Sulfates / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D011134:Polysaccharides; D018894:Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors; D013431:Sulfates