AZT, een HIV-virusremmer (klik hier),

die overigens niet geheel zonder gevaren is, 

lijkt vermenigvuldiging van het XMRV-virus te kunnen stoppen,

omdat XMRV op een essentieel onderdeel sterk overeenkomt met HIV.

Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus is susceptible to AZT.

Virology. 2009 Dec 1. [Epub ahead of print]

Sakuma R, Sakuma T, Ohmine S, Silverman RH, Ikeda Y.

The xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV)

is a human retrovirus,

recently isolated from

tissues of

prostate cancer patients

with impaired RNase L activity.

In this study,

we evaluated

10 licensed anti-HIV-1 compounds

for their activity against XMRV,

including protease inhibitors (PI),

nucleoside reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors (NRTI),

non-nucleoside RT inhibitors (NNRTI) and

an integrase inhibitor.

No PI affected XMRV production;

even high concentrations of Ritonavir failed

to inhibit the maturation of XMRV Gag polyproteins.

Among the NRTI, NNRTI and integrase inhibitors used in this study,

only AZT blocked XMRV infection and

replication

through inhibition of

viral reverse transcription.

This sensitivity of

XMRV

to AZT

may be explained by

the modest homology in

the motif D sequences of

HIV-1 and XMRV reverse transcriptases.

If XMRV becomes established as

an etiological agent for

prostate cancer or other diseases,

AZT may be useful for

preventing or

treating XMRV infections

in humans.

PMID: 19959199 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19959199

Met dank aan Dean.