Effects of bone marrow stimulatory cytokines on human immunodeficiency virus replication and the antiviral activity of dideoxynucleosides in cultures of monocyte/macrophages

Cells of the monocyte lineage are important targets for the replication of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Our group and others have previously shown that granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) stimulates HIV replication in monocyte/macrophages, but that it also enhances the anti-HIV activity of 2′,3′-dideoxy-3′- azidothymidine (AZT). In the present study, we have explored the effects of other bone marrow stimulatory cytokines on the replication of HIV and on the anti-HIV activity of certain dideoxynucleosides in human peripheral blood monocyte/macrophages (M/M). Like GM-CSF, macrophage CSF (M-CSF) enhanced HIV replication in M/M. In contrast, granulocyte CSF (G-CSF) and erythropoietin (Epo) had no such effects. The anti-HIV activity of zidovudine (AZT) was increased in M/M exposed to GM-CSF. In contrast, the anti-HIV activity of AZT was unchanged in M/M exposed to M-CSF, and the activities of 2′,3′-dideoxycytidine (ddC) and 2′,3′-dideoxyinosine (ddl) were unchanged or slightly diminished in M/M stimulated with GM-CSF or M-CSF. These differential activities of AZT and ddC were paralleled by differential effects of the cytokines on the anabolism of these drugs to their active 5′-triphosphate moieties. GM-CSF increased the levels of AZT-5′-triphosphate (at least in part through an increase in thymidine kinase activity) and overall induced an increase in the ratio of AZT-5′-triphosphate/thymidine-5′- triphosphate. In contrast, M-CSF-induced increases in AZT-5′- triphosphate were roughly matched by increases in thymidine-5′- triphosphate. Also, GM-CSF- or M-CSF-induced increases in the levels of ddC-5′-triphosphate were associated with parallel increases in the levels of deoxycytidine-5′-triphosphate (the physiologic nucleoside that competes at the level of reverse transcriptase), so that there was relatively little net change in the ddC-5′-triphosphate/deoxycytidine- 5′-triphosphate ratio. Thus, bone marrow stimulatory cytokines may have a variety of effects on HIV replication and on the activity and metabolism of dideoxynucleosides in M/M.