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Published on: May 15, 2014
Pokeweed antiviral protein: a potential nonspermicidal prophylactic antiviral agent
1Department of Reproductive Biology, Parker Hughes Institute, St. Paul, Minnesota 55113, USA. odcruz@ih.org
Objective:
To investigate the effects of pokeweed antiviral protein (PAP), a 29-kDa anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) protein purified from the leaves of Phytolacca americana, on human sperm function.
Design:
Prospective, controlled study.
Setting:
Reproductive biology department.
Patient(S):
Seven sperm donors.
Intervention(S):
Human sperm and female genital tract epithelial cells were exposed to PAP ranging in concentration from 1 to 1,000 microg/mL.
Main Outcome Measures:
Effect of PAP on sperm motility, kinematics, and sperm penetration through bovine mucus, as well as binding, penetration, and fusion of zona-free hamster eggs.
Results:
Exposing human sperm to PAP (IC(50) p24 = 14 +/- 2 nM) did not affect sperm motility and kinematics over a dose range of 1 to 1,000 microg/mL. Treating sperm with either 100 or 1,000 microg/mL of PAP had no effect on cervical mucus penetrability, nor did it affect sperm binding, penetration, and fusion of zona-free hamster eggs. PAP was noncytotoxic to genital-tract epithelial cells.
Conclusions:
The broad-spectrum antiviral agent PAP was nontoxic to human sperm and female genital tract epithelial cells even at a concentration 2,000 times higher than its IC(50) value against HIV-1. PAP has particular clinical usefulness both as a nonspermicidal intravaginal microbicide and as a prophylactic antiviral agent that can inactivate infective viruses and virus-infected cells in semen before assisted reproductive technology procedures are undertaken.
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