The ability of cyclodextrins to enhance the antiviral activity of a phosphodiester oligodeoxynucleotide has been investigated. A 18-mer oligodeoxynucleotide complementary to the initiation region of the mRNA coding for the spike protein and containing the intergenic consensus sequence of an enteric coronavirus has been tested for antiviral action against virus growth in human adenocarcinoma cells. The phosphodiester oligodeoxynucleotide only showed a limited effect on virus growth rate (from 12 to 34% viral inhibition in cells treated with 7.5 to 25 microM oligodeoxynucleotide, respectively, at a multiplicity of infection of 0.1 infectious particle per cell). In the same conditions, the phosphorothioate analogue exhibited stronger antiviral activity, the inhibition increased from 56 to 90%. The inhibitory effect of this analogue was antisense and sequence-specific. Northern blot analysis showed that the sequence-dependent mechanism of action appears to be the inhibition of mRNA transcription. We conclude that the coronavirus intergenic consensus sequence is a good target for an antisense oligonucleotide antiviral action. The properties of the phosphodiester oligonucleotide was improved after its complexation with cyclodextrins. The most important increase of the antiviral activity (90% inhibition) was obtained with only 7.5 microM oligonucleotide complexed to a cyclodextrin derivative, 6-deoxy-6-S-beta-D-galactopyranosyl-6-thio-cyclomalto-heptaose+ ++ in a molar ratio of 1:100. These studies suggest that the use of cyclodextrin derivatives as carrier for phosphodiester oligonucleotides delivery may be an effective method for increasing the therapeutic potential of these compounds in viral infections.

This study examined various factors that affect the selection of ligand concentrations when using affinity capillary electrophoresis (ACE) for the determination of equilibrium constants in free solution. Two groups of model systems were used in this work: the binding of nitrophenols to alpha- or beta-cyclodextrin and the binding of D- or L-tryptophan to human serum albumin (HSA). Both systems gave 1:1 binding behavior in the ACE studies and good fits to previous equations derived to describe the shift in analyte mobility that occurs as the ligand concentration of the running buffer is varied. Some practical factors limiting the range of ligand levels that could be used in such studies included the relative amount of injected analyte, ligand solubility and the ligand\'s background signal. More fundamental factors included the size of the equilibrium constant for the system being investigated, the relative range of mobilities over which the analyte peak might be observed, the precision of the mobility measurements and the number of analytes present in the sample. Equations and graphs were developed for illustrating each of these latter items and their role in determining the range of ligand concentrations that could be used in ACE binding constant measurements. The results predicted by these equations and graphs showed good agreement with those observed experimentally, and should prove useful in optimizing ACE conditions for other solutes and ligands.