A NOVEL ASSAY SYSTEM FOR ANTI-HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS TYPE-1 (HIV-1) ACTIVITY USING A SUBCLONE OF A MONOCYTIC CELL-LINE, U937

A subclonal cl.1-14 cell was established from a monocytic cell line U9 37 by a limiting dilution method. The anti-HIV-1 activity of some anti viral compounds was evaluated in HIV-1-infected cl.1-14 cells. The res ults demonstrated that although AZT was a potent inhibitor of HIV-1 re plication in cl.1-14 cells, its 50% effective concentration (EC(50)) v alues was 80 times higher than that in HIV-1 infected MT-4 cells; the EC(50) of AZT was 0.16 mu M and 0.002 mu M in cl.1-14 and MT-4 cells, respectively. In contrast, the anti-HIV-1 activity of ddA, ddI and ddC in cl.1-14 cells was comparable to that in MT-4 cells. The antiviral activity of nevirapine, dextran sulfate, curdlan sulfate and T22 did n ot differ significantly between the cl.1-14 and MT-4 cells. The antivi ral activity of several compounds in the HIV-1-infected cl.1-14 cells was similar to that in the HIV-1JR-FL-infected human peripheral macrop hages. Our results suggest that c1.1-14 cell cultures are very useful for estimating antiviral activity and more advantageous than the use o f peripheral blood macrophages.