Abstract
This study was conducted to evaluate the in vivo genotoxicity of zidovudine (ZDV) in patients with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Patients with this disease who were non-smokers and on ZDV (1200 mg/day) as their only medication for 4 weeks to 7 months were studied. Patients with AIDS who had not received ZDV served as a negative control. Whole blood cultures were initiated by conventional methods with PHA 1:50 dilution. In addition, for each culture there was an untreated control and a recombinant interferon-β (rIFN-β)-treated culture. The IFN-treated cultures were exposed to 10, 100, 1000, or 10000 units of rIFN-β for the entire incubation period. The cells were harvested at 72 h and stained with a fluorescence plus Giemsa method which permits the determination of the number of division cycles a cell has completed. One hundred metaphases from first division cells were scored from each culture for chromosome aberrations that were mainly from the chromatid-type, i.e. chromatid, chromosome, and isochromatid breaks. The frequency of breaks in the ZDV and no ZDV group was 8.29 ± 2.65 and 0.5 ± 0.29 per 100 cells respectively (P<0.05). Cultures from ZDV patients that were incubated with 100 and 1000 units of rIFN-β, however, showed a frequency of 1.3 ± 0.71 and 1.9 ± 1.08 respectively, which was significantly lower than observed in the cultures not exposed to IFN (P<0.05). At the highest dose of rIFN-β utilized no aberrations were detected. It would appear, therefore, that ZDV treatment results in a significant increase in chromosomal aberrations and that cultivation of cells with rIFN-β significantly decreased the appearance of these aberrations in vitro.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 205-212 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Antiviral Research |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1991 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- AIDS
- Chromosomal damage
- Interferon beta
- ZDV
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Virology
- Pharmacology