AMANTADINE DOES NOT HAVE ANTIVIRAL ACTIVITY AGAINST BORNA-DISEASE VIRUS

We have investigated the antiviral activity of amantadine (AD) against Boma disease virus (BDV) in several culture cell systems. We present evidence that AD, in the range 5 to 10 mu M, does not have antiviral a ctivity against BDV. Treatment of BDV infected cells with AD for six d ays caused neither a reduction in the number of infected cells, nor a decrease in steady state levels of BDV RNA or proteins. Moreover, trea tment of cells with AD prior infection did not affect BDV multiplicati on, whereas influenza A virus yield was less than 1% with respect to t hat obtained in untreated control cells.