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 [34] (Mw 34×103), xylofuranan sulfate, and ribofuranan sulfate completely prevented HIV-induced cytopathic effects (CPE) at concentrations >10μg/ml and dextran sulfate [7] (Mw 7×103) at concentrations >100 μg/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-HIB cells, formation of multinucleated cells was completely inhibited in the presence of 100μg/ml of these sulfated compounds. Dextran sulfate [34] showed 20-30% growth inhibition of uninfected MT-4 cells at 1000μg/ml but dextran sulfate [7], xylofuranan sulfate, and ribofuranan sulfate showed no effect on MT-4 cell growth at this concentration. All of these sulfated polysaccharides efficiently inhibited the reverse transcriptase activity of avian myeloblastosis virus and HIV.
