Inhibition of mouse retroviral disease by bioactive glutaminase-asparaginase

Glutamine depletion strongly inhibits the replication of Rauscher murine leukaemia retrovirus (RLV) in vitro. Pseudomonas 7A glutaminase-asparaginase (PGA), capable of depleting glutamine and asparagine for prolonged periods, was used to determine the therapeutic effectiveness of glutamine depletion in mice infected with RLV or Friend virus. During PGA treatment of viraemic animals, serum reverse transcriptase activity fell to control levels and infected animals did not develop splenomegaly. The therapeutic results obtained with PGA compared favourably with those of azidothymidine given intraperitoneally at 30 mg/kg/day. Western blots performed on splenic tissue from control and treated animals indicated that glutamine depletion prevented readthrough of an amber codon at the gag-pol junction, stopping translation of viral mRNA at that point. Treatment of RLV-infected animals with PGA resulted in nearly a 200% increase in mean survival time even when therapy was initiated late in the course of the disease. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that a nutrient required for viral replication can be enzymically depleted in vivo to inhibit viral replication.