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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, February 2009, p. 631-638, Vol. 53, No. 2
0066-4804/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AAC.00866-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and Center for Molecular Therapeutics and Resistance, Center for Sexually Transmitted Disease, Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102,1 Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854,2 Novaflux Biosciences, Inc., Princeton, New Jersey 085403
Received 30 June 2008/ Returned for modification 26 August 2008/ Accepted 24 November 2008
The present studies were conducted to better define the mechanism of action of polyethylene hexamethylene biguanide (PEHMB) (designated herein as NB325), which was shown in previous studies to inhibit infection by the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). Fluorescence-activated flow cytometric analyses of activated human CD4+ T lymphocytes exposed to NB325 demonstrated concentration-dependent reductions in CXCR4 epitope recognition in the absence of altered recognition of selected CD4 or CD3 epitopes. NB325 also inhibited chemotaxis of CD4+ T lymphocytes induced by the CXCR4 ligand CXCL12. However, NB325 did not cause CXCR4 internalization (unlike CXCL12) and did not interfere with CXCL12 binding. Additional flow cytometric analyses using antibodies with distinct specificities for extracellular domains of CXCR4 demonstrated that NB325 specifically interfered with antibody binding to extracellular loop 2 (ECL2). This interaction was confirmed using competitive binding analyses, in which a peptide derived from CXCR4 ECL2 competitively inhibited NB325-mediated reductions in CXCR4 epitope recognition. Collectively, these results demonstrate that the biguanide-based compound NB325 inhibits HIV-1 infection by specifically interacting with the HIV-1 coreceptor CXCR4.
Published ahead of print on 1 December 2008.
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