| abstract |
Compositions for the treatment or prevention of AIDS or other diseases resulting from infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus containing one or more porphyrins. Porphyrins are tetrapyrrole macrocyle compounds with bridges of one carbon joining the pyrroles. Porphyrins occur naturally and are made synthetically. Derivatives of porphyrins include porphyrins with one or more substituents on one or more of the rings, porphyrins in which the conjugation of the ring has been altered by addition of substituents, porphyrins in which one or more center nitrogens is attached to substituents such as metals, liganded metals, and organic moieties, metalloporphyrins and metalloporphyrin-ligand complexes. Examples of natural and synthetic, positively, negatively, and neutrally charged porphyrins and porphyrin derivatives have been found to exhibit selective anti-HIV activity which is not dependent on the presence of light. Most of the compounds did not inhibit replication of herpes simplex virus type 1 or type 2 or Coxsackievirus strain B4. Effective concentrations for inhibition of HIV-1, as measured in vitro by inhibition of replication range from 0.01 to greater than 100 mu M. None of the compounds were toxic to unifected PBM cells. |