Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus is susceptible to AZT

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Virology. 2009 Dec 1.

Xenotropic murine leukemia

virus-related virus is susceptible

to AZT.

Sakuma R, Sakuma T, Ohmine S, Silverman

RH, Ikeda Y.

Department of Molecular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, 200

First Street SW, Rochester, MN 55906, USA.

The xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus

(XMRV) is a human retrovirus, recently isolated from

tissues of prostate cancer patients with impaired

RNase L activity.

In this study, we evaluated 10 licensed anti-HIV-1

compounds for their activity against XMRV, including

protease inhibitors (PI), nucleoside reverse

transcriptase (RT) inhibitors (NRTI), non-nucleoside

RT inhibitors (NNRTI) and an integrase inhibitor.

No PI affected XMRV production; even high

concentrations of Ritonavir failed to inhibit the

maturation of XMRV Gag polyproteins.

Among the NRTI, NNRTI and integrase inhibitors

used in this study, only AZT blocked XMRV infection

and replication through inhibition of viral reverse

transcription.

This sensitivity of XMRV to AZT may be explained by

the modest homology in the motif D sequences of

HIV-1 and XMRV reverse transcriptases.

If XMRV becomes established as an etiological agent

for prostate cancer or other diseases, AZT may be

useful for preventing or treating XMRV infections in

humans.

PMID: 19959199 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]