Tochikura T S, Nakashima H, Hirose K, Yamamoto N
Dept. of Virology and Parasitology, Yamaguchi University School of Medicine, Japan.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1987 Oct 29;148(2):726-33. doi: 10.1016/0006-291x(87)90936-3.
PSK, a biological response modifier (BRM), was studied to determine its anti-viral activity on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in vitro. Either a novel infection system using human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I)-carrying MT-4 cells or a coculture system using MOLT-4 cells and its virus-producing cells MOLT-4/HIVHTLV-IIIB which induces multinucleated giant cells very efficiently was used. PSK almost completely blocked the cytopathic effect such as giant cell formation and HIV-specific antigen expression both in MT-4 cells and MOLT-4 cells at a concentration of 0.4 and 0.8 mg/ml, respectively. Pretreatment of the virus with PSK may specifically interfere with early stages of HIV infection by modifying the viral receptor.
