ANTIVIRAL ACTIVITY OF GILVOCARCIN-V PLUS UVA RADIATION

Gilvocarcin V (GV), a coumarin, is a nucleic acid photosensitizer that is phototoxic to bacteria and mammalian cells at picomolar levels in the presence of near-W radiation (UVA). We evaluated the effectiveness of GV plus UVA for inactivation of several viruses, including herpes simplex virus, type 1 (HSV) and the bacterial viruses phi X174, T7, PR D 1 and phi 6. Some inactivation of the bacterial viruses was observed with UVA radiation alone (4-50% survival at 26 kJ/m(2)). Additional p hotosensitized inactivation was observed only with T7 and phi 6 at 2.0 mu M GV. On the other hand, HSV was photoinactivated with concentrati ons of GV three orders of magnitude lower (1.0 nM). Similar to the cas e with UV (254 nm) inactivation, the GV-UVA survival curve for HSV ind icated multicomponent inactivation kinetics, which could not be explai ned by photobleaching of GV. The wide range of photosensitivities of t hese viruses to GV cannot be adequately explained by models based only on viral nucleic acid content or presence of lipid envelopes.