NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - By combining two antiviral compounds -- a lipid ether and a synthetic peptide -- biochemists have identified a microbicide that inactivates herpes simplex virus (HSV) in vitro at far lower concentrations and in a fraction of the time seen with either compound on its own.
“With viruses such as HSV (and human immunodeficiency virus), which establish permanent infections, decreasing the viral titer as quickly as possible to prevent the initial infection of susceptible cells is one of the keys to reducing viral prevalence,” the authors point out in the August issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
As a single agent, the lipid ether 1-0-octyl-sn-glycerol (OG) at a concentration of 10 to 15 mM requires an hour to inactivate HSV in the presence of 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS), Dr. Charles E. Isaacs and colleagues note. The synthetic peptide D2A21 at 60 micromolar requires 3 hours to inactivate HSV-2 by 200-fold.
The team, based at the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities in Staten Island, New York, found that by combining 3 mM OG with 9 micromolar D2A21, they could reduce HSV titers by 100-fold in the presence of 1% FBS at the zero time point. This combination completely inactivated HSV-1 in 10 minutes or less. HSV-2 was more resistant, but it was inactivated by 40 minutes.
When the serum concentration was increased to 10%, the antiviral mixture reduced HSV-1 titers by at least 10,000-fold at 10 minutes, and HSV-2 titers by 100-fold. HSV-1 was completely inactivated by 30 minutes, while HSV-2 was reduced almost 100,000-fold at 50 minutes.
The variable response of the two viral strains could result from their being cultivated in two different cell types, the authors suggest, or from differences in envelope glycoproteins. FBS interferes with the reaction by causing increasing concentrations of compounds to bind nonspecifically to lipids and peptides.
Source: Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2004;48:3182-3183. [ Google search on this article ]
MeSH Headings:Sexually Transmitted Diseases, ViralCopyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
