Inhibition of adsorption of human T‐cell‐leukemia virus type 1 by a plant lectin, wheat‐germ agglutinin

Thirty-six lectins that recognize various sugar chains were examined for inhibitory activities against infection with human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I). Wheat-germ agglutinin (WGA) was the most inhibitory among them: plating of the pseudotype of vesicular-stomatitis virus (VSV) bearing envelope antigens of HTLV-I was markedly inhibited by treatment of indicator cells with WGA just before adsorption, but not by treatment after virus adsorption. Treatment with WGA before adsorption, however, could not inhibit the plating of VSV, VSV pseudotypes of bovine leukemia virus, Moloney murine leukemia virus and human immunodeficiency virus type I. Syncytium formation induced by HTLV-I was also inhibited by WGA upon co-cultivation of U-251 MG human glioma cells or MOLT-4 human T-cells with HTLV-l-producing C9I /PL cells. Formation of proviral DNA detected one day after infection was also inhibited when indicator cells had been treated with WGA before adsorption of HTLV-I, but not after its adsorption. These findings indicated that WGA specifically inhibits plating of HTLV-I when added to culture just before adsorption and suggested that a substance(s) containing sugar chains recognized by WGA might be involved in an adsorption step of HTLV-I.