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Numerous cytokines and chemokines are involved in inflammatory and immune response. Whereas some of them inhibit virus replication in vitro directly or increase the patients' T4-lymphocyte level, others effects are not so clear. Using human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and cell cultures we have studied the antiviral effect of complexes of salmon DNA with metals and of a new factor(s) (antiviral factor, AVF) induced in cells by the complexes. The Fe3+/DNA complex possessed the highest antiviral activity. It was found that MT-2, MT-4, CEM and Jurkat cells treated with the complexes secreted AVF which inhibited the replication of nine HIV-1 isolates, was noncytotoxic and stimulated cell proliferation. AVF did not inactivate HIV. The molecular mass analysis of AVF showed that its antiviral activity is associated with its fraction of M(r) of 3 K. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis of mRNA from MT-4 cells treated with the complexes showed an increase in the the expression of genes for interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1 alpha), tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and TNF-beta while expression of genes for IL-1-beta, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8. IL-10, IL-12; 35p, 40p, IL-13, GMCSF, GSF and RANTES was not detected at all. However, the anti-HIV activity of the cell culture supernatant in vitro cannot be explained by mere presence of the inflammatory substances mentioned above, because they do not possess such activity and their M(r) is higher than that of AVF. Our findings raise the possibility that AVF(s) may be involved in the mechanism of cell resistance against HIV.