Therapeutic Activity of Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors in Murine RetrovirusModels

摘要

The Rauscher murine leukemia virus (RLV) has served as a primary in vivo modelfor screening of potential antiretroviral agents and biological response modifiers against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Infection of BALB/c female mice (4-6 weeks of age) with RLV rapidly produced splenomegaly, viremia, and hypergammaglobulinemia, all of which have been used as measures of disease progression. This murine retrovirus model has predictive value only for agents that act on viral or cellular functions common to both RLV and HIV, for example, reverse transciptase (RT) inhibitors. 3'-Azido-3'-deoxythymidine (AZT) and 2',3'-dideoxycytidine (ddC), two RT inhibitors with established activity against HIV, provided a test of the validity of the RLV model.