Amyotrophic choreo-acanthocytosis: a new observation in southern Europe

Amyotrophic choreo-acanthocytosis is a rare disease of adult onset characterized by dyskinesias, neurogenic muscular atrophy, erythrocytary acanthocytosis with normal serum lipoproteins and elevated levels of serum CPK. Presumably, this disorder is an autosomal recessively inherited trait. This disease has been described in Japanese, English, Finnish and Puerto Rican people. This is the first observation in the southern countries of Europe, in two members of a Calabrian family. The authors point out that amyotrophic features can occur several years before the appearance of the extrapyramidal disorders.

The restoration of impaired macrophage functions using as immunomodulator the Corynebacterium granulosum-derived P40 fraction

Many microorganisms and compounds of microbial origin exhibit immunomodulatory activities and have been extensively used in immunotherapy of experimental animal tumors and in patients with neoplasia. In this paper we describe the effect of the C. granulosum-derived P40 fraction on the growth and metastatization of the transplantable epithelioma T8 of Guèrin. Moreover, we evaluated the effect of P40 treatment on several depressed macrophage functions of tumor-bearing rats. In particular, the phagocytic and chemotactic activities of such cells were studied, as well as the antiviral intrinsic and extrinsic activities against HSV-1 and the anti-Toxoplasma gondii activity. All these functions were depressed in untreated tumor-bearing rats. Administration of a single intravenous injection of P40 fraction led to the restoration of all depressed macrophage activities to normal values. In particular, the possibility of restoring the antimicrobial activity of macrophages from tumor-bearing rats by treatment with this immunomodulator is of great concern when one considers the increasing incidence of opportunistic infections in immunocompromised hosts. Results are discussed in terms of both the possible mechanism of action of P40 and of its possible target cells.

"In vitro" study on human mononuclear phagocytic cells behaviour versus DNA and RNA viruses

It is generally accepted that mononuclear phagocytic cells are of crucial importance in defence against viral infections. Using a method of "in vitro" differentiation from human blood monocytes to macrophages, the interactions between human monocyte-macrophage with herpes simplex virus type 1 and 2, adenovirus type 17, coxsackie virus B type 4, poliovirus type 1 and ECHO virus type 2, are reported. In all viruses tested on monocytes, the infection of the cells was very poor according to the data of specific immunofluorescence and of the residual infectivity. In the macrophage stage all viruses tested were able to infect the cells.

T cell-macrophage interaction in arginase-mediated resistance to herpes simplex virus

Peritoneal macrophages activated by-products derived from a herpes simplex virus-specific helper T cell clone were used to investigate intrinsic and extrinsic resistance mechanisms to herpes simplex virus type 1 infection in vitro. T cell-activated macrophages produced fewer infective centres, indicating enhanced intrinsic resistance, and markedly reduced the growth of virus in a permissive cell line. The reduction in virus growth correlated with the depletion of arginine in the support medium, presumably resulting from increased arginase production by activated macrophages. The significance of these findings for antiviral immunity in vivo is discussed.

Tumor-dependent resistance of rat peritoneal macrophages to herpes simplex virus

By their position at sites of initial infection and their wide distribution in major organs of the body, macrophages may be decisive in determining the susceptibility or resistance of the host to virus infection. Macrophage restriction of virus replication has been shown to be closely related to virus strains or virus types and to the age of the infected host. We report the effects of the development of a solid tumor in rats on intrinsic in vitro macrophage activity against herpes simplex virus type 1. The results obtained with the infectious center assays and the analysis of single-cycle growth curves of herpes simplex virus type 1 in macrophages obtained from normal and tumor-bearing rats showed a depression of antiviral activity of macrophages from tumor-bearing rats. The possibility of immunomodulation by bacterial adjuvants on tumor-bearing rats and the effects on the antiviral activity of peritoneal macrophages were furthermore demonstrated.

Structure-activity relationships of new antiviral compounds

In preliminary experiments, the compound 2-amino-5-(2-sulfamoylphenyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole (G413) was shown to possess high activity against DNA viruses (herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2 and adenovirus 17) and RNA viruses (poliovirus 1, echovirus 2, and coxsackievirus B4). Experiments on the replicative cycle of poliovirus 1 and production of infectious RNA viruses demonstrate that this compound probably prevents assembly of virus particles by acting on structural proteins. In the present experiments, results concerning the activity of derivatives of G413 after side-chain modification are reported. Modification of the primary amine H to CH3 or CH2-CH = CH2 produced a loss of activity against DNA viruses, but inhibitory action on RNA viruses was preserved. Modification to CH2CH3 resulted in the loss of antiviral activity.