FIG. 1.

Murabutide suppresses HIV-1 replication in CD8-depleted lymphocytes from HIV-1 patients. CD8-depleted PBMCs from 36 patients were activated with PHA for 2 to 3 days, and nonadherent lymphocytes were then collected, washed, and cultured in medium containing 10 U of IL-2/ml in the absence or presence of Murabutide. Culture supernatants were harvested over a 2-week period and were tested for p24 Ag secretion by ELISA. (A) Cultures were left unstimulated or were stimulated with 0.1 to 100 μg of Murabutide/ml, and supernatants were tested 10 days later for p24 content. Results are means ± standard errors of the mean of values of samples from four different patients. (B) Levels of p24 release in 8- to 10-day cultures from 10 asymptomatics, 16 symptomatics, and 6 AIDS patients are shown as median values. (C) Kinetics of p24 release over a 14-day culture period was evaluated in unstimulated (white symbols) and Murabutide-stimulated (black symbols) cultures from three different patients. (D) The mean percent inhibition (± standard errors of the mean) by Murabutide (10 μg/ml) is presented for p24 release in 8- to 10-day cultures harboring X4, X4-R5, and R5 HIV-1 isolates. The recovery and analysis of coreceptor specificity for each of the 23 tested isolates are explained in Materials and Methods. ∗, significantly lower levels (P < 0.05; Wilcoxon matched-pair test) for treated cultures than for untreated (Medium) cultures.