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Treatment of human fibroblasts with human recombinant gamma interferon blocked the growth of Toxoplasma gondii, an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite. Growth of the parasite was measured by a plaque assay 7 days after infection or by the incorporation of [3H]uracil 1 or 2 days after infection. The antitoxoplasma activity induced in the host cells by gamma interferon was strongly dependent upon the tryptophan concentration of the medium. Progressively higher minimal inhibitory concentrations of gamma interferon were observed as the tryptophan concentration in the culture medium was increased. Treatment with gamma interferon did not make the cells impermeable to tryptophan. The kinetics of [3H]tryptophan uptake into the acid-soluble pools of control and gamma interferon-treated cultures were identical during the first 48 sec. Thereafter uptake of [3H]tryptophan into the acid-soluble pool of control fibroblasts reached the expected plateau after 96 sec. In contrast, uptake of [3H]tryptophan continued for at least 12 min in the gamma interferon-treated cultures. At that time, the acid-soluble pool of the gamma interferon-treated cultures contained 8 times the radioactivity of the control cultures. This continued accumulation was the result of rapid intracellular degradation of [3H]tryptophan into kynurenine and N-formylkynurenine that leaked slowly from the cells. These two metabolites were also recovered from the medium of cultures treated for 1 or 2 days with gamma interferon. Human recombinant alpha and beta interferons, which have no antitoxoplasma activity, did not induce any detectable degradation of tryptophan. Several hypotheses are presented to explain how the intracellular degradation of tryptophan induced by gamma interferon could restrict the growth of an obligate intracellular parasite.

2,4-Diaminopteridines (21 compounds) and 2,4-diamino-5-methyl-5-deazapteridines (34 compounds) along with three 2,4-diamino-5-unsubstituted-5-deazapteridines and four 2,4-diaminoquinazolines, each with an aryl group attached to the 6-position of the heterocyclic moiety through a two-atom bridge (either CH2NH, CH2N(CH3), CH2S, or CH2CH2), were synthesized and evaluated as inhibitors of the growth of Toxoplasma gondii in culture and as inhibitors of dihydrofolate reductase enzymes from T. gondii, Pneumocystis carinii, and rat liver. Exceptionally high levels of combined potency and selectivity as growth inhibitors of T. gondii and as inhibitors of the microbial enzymes relative to the mammalian enzyme were found among the 5-methyl-5-deazapteridines but not for the other heterocyclic types. Thirty of the 34 5-methyl-5-deaza compounds gave growth inhibition IC50 values lower than that of pyrimethamine (0.4 μM) with 14 compounds below 0.1 μM, values that compare favorably with those for piritrexim and trimetrexate (both near 0.02 μM). As inhibitors of T. gondii DHFR, all but three of the 34 5-methyl-5-deaza compounds gave IC50 values in the order of magnitude with those of piritrexim (0.017 μM) and trimetrexate (0.010 μM), and 17 compounds of this group gave IC50 values versus P. carinii DHFR similarly comparable with those of piritrexim (0.031 μM) and trimetrexate (0.042 μM). Thirteen of these congeners gave both T. gondii growth inhibition and DHFR inhibition IC50 values of 0.10 μM or less, thus indicating facile penetration of the cell membrane. Eleven of these inhibitors of both T. gondii growth and DHFR have selectivity ratios (IC50 rat liver divided by IC50 T. gondii) of 5 or greater for the parasite DHFR. The highest selectivity ratio of nearly 100 belongs to the 5-methyl-5-deaza compound whose 6-substituent is CH2CH2C6H3(OCH3)2-2,5. This compound is over 10³-fold more selective for T. gondii DHFR than bridge homologue piritrexim (selectivity ratio 0.088), a compound now in clinical trials. The candidate with CH2NHC6H3(CH3)2-2,5 in the 6-position gave the highest P. carinii DHFR selectivity ratio of 4.0, which is about 60-fold more selective than trimetrexate (0.071) and 80-fold more selective than piritrexim (0.048) toward this enzyme. The 10 best compounds with respect to potency and selectivity includes six compounds bearing 2,5-disubstituted phenyl groups in the side chain (with little, if any, difference in effects of methyl, methoxy, or ethoxy), two side chains bearing 1-naphthyl groups, and two with 5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-1-naphthyl groups. Bridge groups represented in the 10 choice compounds are CH2NH, CH2N(CH3), CH2CH2, and CH2S. The high levels of both potency and selectivity among these agents suggest that in vivo studies now underway may lead to agents that could replace trimetrexate and piritrexim in treatment of toxoplasmosis and P. carinii pneumonia.

L-651,582 (5-amino-[4-(4-chlorobenzoyl)-3,5-dichlorobenzyl]-1,2,3-triazole-4- carboxamide), which is active in vivo against coccidiosis caused by the intracellular parasitic protozoan Eimeria tenella, is also effective against this organism in tissue culture in Maden Darby bovine kidney (MDBK) host cells. L-651,582 inhibited 45Ca++ uptake, as well as [3H]hypoxanthine incorporation into soluble nucleotide pools, in MDBK cells at concentrations similar to those required for antiparasitic activity (IC50 = 0.3 microgram/ml). However, the drug did not inhibit the [3H] hypoxanthine incorporation into the nucleotide pools of the intracellular E. tenella under the same conditions. The antiparasitic activity of several L-651,582 analogs paralleled their ability to inhibit [3H]hypoxanthine incorporation in MDBK cells. L-651,582 similarly inhibited the growth of the intracellular parasitic protozoan Toxoplasma gondii in vitro with either HeLa cells or Normal Human Fibroblasts as host cells. The IC50 for inhibition of T. gondii growth in normal human fibroblasts was similar to that for [3H]hypoxanthine incorporation inhibition. In HeLa cells, however, 40-fold higher levels were required for the inhibition of [3H]hypoxanthine incorporation than were required to inhibit parasite growth, showing that antiparasitic activity was not a consequence of the alteration in host nucleotide metabolism. This was also consistent with the observation that the effect of L-651,582 against E. tenella in MDBK cells was not reversed by the addition of nutrients involved in nucleotide biosynthesis. This study suggests that L-651,582 has antiparasitic activity which correlates with host cell effects and which may be a result of blocking Ca++ entry in the host cells, but is not the result of an alteration of host nucleotide biosynthesis.

The growth of Toxoplasma gondii in cultured human fibroblasts was inhibited by recombinant human gamma interferon at concentrations of 8 to 16 U/ml. The interferon was titrated by observing a total inhibition of parasite plaque formation 7 days after infection. Inhibition of the growth of T. gondii in the early days after infection was measured by marked reductions in the incorporation of radioactive uracil, a precursor that can only be used by the parasites. This assay showed that when cells were pretreated with gamma interferon for 1 day and then infected, inhibition of T. gondii growth could be readily detected 1 or 2 days after infection. When the pretreatment was omitted and parasites and gamma interferon were added at the same time, no inhibition of parasite growth could be detected 1 day later, although it was apparent after 2 days. Cultures from which the gamma interferon had been removed by washing after a 1-day treatment showed inhibition of T. gondii growth. Gamma interferon had no effect on the viability of extracellular parasites, but it did inhibit the synthesis of host cell RNA and protein by ca. 50% 3 days after treatment. This degree of inhibition is unlikely, of itself, to compromise the growth of T. gondii. Recombinant alpha and beta interferons had no effect on the growth of T. gondii.

Primary chick embryo cultures were able to photoreactivate ultraviolet-treated pseudorabies virus. Upon exposure to fluorescent light, infected or uninfected chick cells eliminated thymine dimers induced in their deoxyribonucleic acid by ultraviolet irradiation. In contrast, rabbit kidney cells did not photoreactivate the virus or eliminate thymine dimers. Thus, the capacity for photoreactivation appeared to be determined by the ability of the cell to eliminate thymine dimers.

Temperature-sensitive mutants of Sindbis virus fail to grow at a temperature that permits growth of the wild type, but when certain pairs of these mutants, mixed together, infect cells at that temperature, viral growth (i.e., complementation) occurs. The yield from this complementation, however, is of the same order of magnitude as the infectivity in the inoculum. Since in animal virus infections the protein components of the virion probably enter the cell with the viral nucleic acid, it was necessary to demonstrate that the observed complementation required synthesis of new viral protein and nucleic acid rather than some sort of rearrangement of the structural components of the inoculum. To demonstrate that complementation does require new biosynthesis, three biochemical events of normal virus growth have been observed during complementation and correlated with the efficiency of viral growth seen in complementation. These events include: (i) entrance of parental viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) into a double-stranded form; (ii) subsequent synthesis of viral RNA; and (iii) synthesis and subsequent incorporation of viral protein(s) into cell membranes where they were detected by hemadsorption. Although the infecting single-stranded RNA genome of the wild type was converted to a ribonuclease-resistant form, the genome of a mutant (ts-11) incapable of RNA synthesis at a nonpermissive temperature was not so converted. However, during complementation with another mutant also defective in viral RNA synthesis, some of the RNA of mutant ts-11 was converted to a ribonuclease-resistant form, and total synthesis of virus-specific RNA was markedly enhanced. The virus-specific alteration of the cell surface, detected by hemadsorption, was also extensively increased during complementation. These observations support the view that complementation between temperature-sensitive mutants and replication of wild-type virus are similar processes.

The morphogenesis of Sindbis virus was studied by determining the kinetics with which newly synthesized nucleocapsid and envelope proteins appeared in virions released into the extracellular medium. Assembly of the nucleocapsid was more rapid than modification of the cellular membrane by the addition of the viral envelope protein. However, both viral structural proteins were efficiently incorporated into virions; a 0.5-hr pulse-labeling period resulted in the release of maximally labeled virus during the next hour. When protein synthesis was inhibited, release of virus soon declined even though large amounts of both viral structural proteins were present within the cell and ribonucleic acid replication was unaffected.

Ultraviolet light-inactivated frog virus 3 is efficiently photoreactivated by chick embryo cells. A cellular enzyme is presumably responsible for this repair of viral deoxyribonucleic acid, for the phenomenon is insensitive to an inhibitor of protein synthesis and is not seen in mammalian cells that are known to lack photoreactivating enzyme. Since frog virus 3 is a cytoplasmic virus, functionally significant amounts of photoreactivating enzyme are probably present in the cytoplasm of chick embryo cells.

We investigated the metabolic requirements for the decrease in phospholipid synthesis previously observed by Pfefferkorn and Hunter in primary cultures of chick embryo fibroblasts infected with Sindbis virus. The incorporation of 32PO4into all classes of phospholipids was found to decline at the same rate and to the same extent; thus, incorporation of 14C-choline into acid-precipitable form provided a convenient measure of phospholipid synthesis that was used in subsequent experiments. Experiments with temperature-sensitive mutants suggested that some viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) synthesis was essential for the inhibition of choline incorporation, but that functional viral structural proteins were not required. The reduction in phospholipid synthesis was probably a secondary effect of infection resulting from viral inhibition of the cellular RNA and protein synthesis. All three inhibitory effects required about the same amount of viral RNA synthesis; the inhibition of host RNA and protein synthesis began sooner than the decline in phospholipid synthesis; and both actinomycin D and cycloheximide inhibited 14C-choline incorporation in uninfected cells. In contrast, incorporation of 14C-choline into BHK-21 cells was not decreased by 10 hr of exposure to actinomycin D and declined only slowly after cycloheximide treatment. Growth of Sindbis virus in BHK cells did not cause the marked stimulation of phospholipid synthesis seen in picornavirus infections of other mammalian cells; however, inhibition was seen only late in infection.

All Sindbis virus temperature-sensitive mutants defective in “late” functions were systematically surveyed by acrylamide-gel electrophoresis for similarities and differences in the intracellular pattern of virus-specific proteins synthesized at the permissive and nonpermissive temperatures. Only cells infected with mutants of complementation group C showed an altered pattern. At the nonpermissive temperature, these mutants failed to induce the synthesis of a polypeptide corresponding to the nucleocapsid protein and instead overproduced a protein of higher molecular weight than either viral structural protein. This defect was shown to be irreversible by the finding that 3H-leucine incorporated at 41.5 C specifically failed to appear in the nucleocapsid of virions subsequently released at 29 C. Attempts to demonstrate a precursor protein in wild-type infections were inconclusive.

Incubation of Sindbis virus-infected cultures in medium with an ionic strength of 0.105 reduced the virus yield more than 99%. This inhibition was rapidly reversed by exposing the cultures to normal medium: within 20 min the previously inhibited cultures had released as much infectious virus as normal controls had produced during hours of incubation. The following intracellular processes were essentially normal in inhibited, infected monolayers: protein and phospholipid synthesis, the synthesis of infectious viral ribonucleic acid and its incorporation into nucleocapsids, and viral modification of the cell membrane. Accelerated virus production was detected within 20 sec after exposure of inhibited cultures to normal medium. It required an ionic strength greater than 0.145, a pH above 6.7, and a temperature above 21 C. It was not dependent on osmotic pressure, de novo protein synthesis, or a functional energy metabolism. Virus release also occurred in sonic-treated materials of inhibited cells under the same conditions as in living cells. Potential applications of the inhibition to concentration of virus stocks or to obtaining virus in nonphysiological solutions are noted. Preliminary studies with Semiliki Forest virus, Newcastle disease virus, and vesicular stomatitis virus suggest that this phenomenon may be limited to arboviruses.

The interrelationship of viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) and protein synthesis in cells infected by Sindbis virus was investigated. When cultures were treated with puromycin early in the course of infection, the synthesis of interjacent RNA (26S) was preferentially inhibited. A similar result was obtained by shifting cells infected by one temperature-sensitive mutant defective in RNA synthesis from the permissive (29 C) to the nonpermissive (41.5 C) temperature. Under both conditions, the viral RNA produced appeared to be fully active biologically. Once underway, the synthesis of viral RNA in wild-type Sindbis infections did not require concomitant protein synthesis.

Pfefferkorn, E. R. (Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.), Boyce W. Burge, and Helen M. Coady. Characteristics of the photoreactivation of pseudorabies virus. J. Bacteriol. 92:856–861. 1966.—Pseudorabies virus, killed with ultraviolet light and then allowed to adsorb to chick embryo tissue culture cells, can be photoreactivated by light of longer wavelengths. The photoreactivable sector is approximately 0.5. Herpes simplex virus is equally photoreactivable. Photoreactivability is negligible during the first 20 min after adsorption and then rises to a maximum by 100 min. After this maximum is reached, photoreactivability decreases with increasing rate as the temperature of incubation is raised. Inhibition of protein synthesis immediately after absorption prevents the establishment of the photoreactivable state.