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JAC Advance Access originally published online on September 12, 2003
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Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (2003) 52, 551-554
© 2003 The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

Leading Article

Erythrocytes as carriers of reduced glutathione (GSH) in the treatment of retroviral infections

A. Fraternale1, A. Casabianca1, L. Rossi1, L. Chiarantini1, G. F. Schiavano2, A. T. Palamara3, E. Garaci4 and M. Magnani1,*

1 Institute of Biological Chemistry ‘Giorgio Fornaini’, Via Saffi, 2; 2 Institute of Hygiene, Via S. Chiara, 27, University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino (PU); 3 Institute of Microbiology, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, 00185 Rome; 4 Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, 00133 Rome, Italy

Keywords: antivirals, drug delivery, macrophages, RBCs

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


   Introduction
 
Macrophages constitute important targets for HIV-1: they serve as virus reservoirs and represent the most important targets in the central nervous system (CNS). Current antiretroviral therapies are of limited efficacy in this cellular compartment, thus every new approach may be of great clinical relevance. In this paper, we show how autologous erythrocytes (RBCs) have been used to deliver reduced glutathione (GSH) selectively to infected macrophages. This approach, in combination with approved antiretroviral drugs, has been used to protect the CNS of mice infected with LP-BM5, a retroviral complex that causes a syndrome known as murine AIDS. Thus, a similar system may be useful in humans and reducing agents such as GSH may become therapeutically relevant when selectively delivered to macrophages.

In HIV-1-infected patients, highly active antiretroviral therapies (HAART) have been used both to reduce viral load in plasma to un-detectable levels, and to increase the number of CD4 cells in . . . [Full Text of this Article]


   Selective delivery of antiviral drugs to macrophages
 

   Potential role of reduced glutathione as an antiviral agent
 

   Erythrocytes as carriers of GSH to macrophages
 

   Conclusions
 

   Acknowledgements
 

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