Establishment and application of an experimental model for screening anti - AIDS drugs with simian type D retrovirus

Because of the close phylogenetic relationship, the simian acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (SAIDS) is considered as an important model in search of new drugs in prevention and treatment of the pandemic human AIDS. The simian AIDS type D retroviruses (SRV) and simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIV) are the causative agents of SAIDS. A SRV model to screen anti -AIDS drugs in vitro was established. AZT and trichosanthin (TCS) were shown to inhibit SRV1 syncytium formation obviously. The selectivity indexes (SI) of AZT and TCS were 13500 and 8812, respectively. Forty-six natural compounds isolated from the Chinese medical herbs were screened by using this model. There were eleven natural compounds with obvious antiviral activity in vitro. These data indicated that SRV model for screening anti-AIDS drugs was feasible.