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Inoculation of Friend anemia virus, which was a kind of retro virus such as HIV, results splenomegaly, anemia, the increase of WBC counts and reverse transcriptase activity in serum. These results were due to the inhibition of the differentiation of erythroid progenitor cell by the FVA at the spleen. Using these as index of antiviral effects, we pursued the establishment of in vivo screening method for the new anti-AIDS drugs. Among zidovudine, didanosine and zalcitabine, which were already approved as anti-AIDS drugs, treatment of zidovudine for 18 days in BALB/c mice inoculated with Friend anemia virus resulted the most potent inhibitory effects on the splenomegaly, the increase of WBC counts and reverse transcriptase activity, but did not recover the anemia due to the toxicity of zidovudine itself on the bone marrow. The antiviral effects of zidovudine was reduced in case of zidovudine treatment 7 days after Friend anemia virus inoculation. These results suggested that the sooner treatment of zidovudine would be better improved when the virus was inoculated. Human recombinant interferon alpha itself did not show the antiviral activity against Friend anemia virus and also did not affect the antiviral activity of zidovudine. These results suggested that Friend anemia virus would be used as a tool in vivo screening method for the inhibitor of reverse transcriptase.
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