This investigation examines whether
cytokines, as exemplified by
leukoregulin, with their immense potential for biorecognition and target cell modulation as a result of their complex three-dimensional structure, have the potential to provide new directions for
biotherapy of
infectious disease.
Leukoregulin is a naturally occurring immunologic
cytokine, secreted by stimulated lymphocytes, which increases membrane permeability and
drug uptake in
tumor but not in normal cells. This study demonstrates that
leukoregulin also increases the plasma membrane permeability of cells acutely infected with
herpes simplex type 1 virus and that the increase in membrane permeability is accompanied by
a 10- to 100-fold increase in the ability of
acyclovir to inhibit the release of infectious virus when the cells are treated with
leukoregulin 3 hours after
infection with the virus. This is the first demonstration that a
cytokine, alone or in combination with anti-viral
chemotherapy, can effectively inhibit virus replication in human cells following acute
virus infection, which indicates that combination
immunotherapy and
chemotherapy have the potential to completely inhibit the production of infectious virus by acutely infected human cells.