During 1985 and 1986, the authors measured antibodies to human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) in a cohort of 13,260 Jamaicans from all parts of the island who applied for food-handling licenses. HTLV-I seroprevalence was strongly age and sex dependent, rising from 1.7% (10-19 years) to 9.1% (greater than or equal to 70 years) in men and from 1.9% (10-19 years) to 17.4% (greater than or equal to 70 years) in women. In a logistic regression analysis, women were more likely to be seropositive than were men, and farmers, laborers, and the unemployed were more likely to be HTLV-I seropositive than were those reporting student or professional occupations. In men, African ethnicity was associated with HTLV-I seropositivity in the univariate analysis but was not a risk factor after adjustment for age and sex. There was a trend toward higher age-stratified HTLV-I seroprevalence among younger women who reported more pregnancies, but older multigravidas had lower rates of HTLV-I seropositivity. Persons born outside Jamaica had significantly lower seroprevalence than did those born in Jamaica, but they were of slightly different ethnic and occupational compositions than those born in Jamaica.

as described.31 Log P values used in calculations are shown in Table III.Acknowledgment. We are grateful to the Pharmaceutical Society of New South Wales for support to Peter J. Little during part of this study. We thank C. Harwood for excellent assistance with the preparation of the manuscript.

Nine tannins, including gallo- and ellagitannins, were evaluated as potential inhibitors of HIV replication. 1,3,4-Tri-O-galloylquinic acid [1], 3,5-di-O-galloyl-shikimic acid [2], 3,4,5-tri-O-galloylshikimic acid [3], punicalin [6], and punicalagin [7] inhibited HIV replication in infected H9 lymphocytes with little cytotoxicity. Two compounds, punicalin and punicacortein C [8], inhibited purified HIV reverse transcriptase with ID50 of 8 and 5 microM, respectively. Further studies with H9 lymphocytes indicated that chebulagic acid [5] and punicalin did not inactivate virus directly. However, 1,3,4-tri-O-galloylquinic acid and 3,5-di-O-galloylshikimic acid were more effective inhibitors under those conditions. All tannins appear to inhibit virus-cell interactions. Thus, inspite of their anti-RT activity, the mechanism by which tannins inhibit HIV may not be associated with this enzyme.

Four new tetragalloylquinic acids, 3,5-di-O-galloyl-4-O-digalloylquinic acid, 3,4-di-O-galloyl-5-O-digalloylquinic acid, 3-O-digalloyl-4,5-di-O-galloylquinic acid, and 1,3,4,5-tetra-O-galloylquinic acid, were isolated and characterized from a commercial tannic acid as a new class of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitor. Compounds 2, 3, and 4 inhibit HIV RT activity 90, 89, and 84% at 100 microM and 73, 70, and 63% at 30 microM, respectively. Compounds 2-5 also inhibit the HIV growth in cells in the range of 61-70% with low cytotoxicity at 25 microM. The HIV cell growth inhibitory effects of these compounds at 25 microM and 6.25 microM (44-57%) are comparable to their effects against the HIV RT at 30 microM and 10 microM, respectively. The inhibitory effect of 3 against DNA polymerases indicates that the selective antiviral action of 3 is determined by more than its action with HIV RT.

No abstract