Studies in a Murine Model Confirm the Safety of Griffithsin and Advocate Its Further Development as a Microbicide Targeting HIV-1 and Other Enveloped Viruses

Kouokam, Joseph Calvin; Lasnik, Amanda B.; Palmer, Kenneth E.

First, we evaluated the levels of four key cytokines, including IL-1b, IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-α, in mPBMC culture supernatants after 24, 48, and 72 h of incubation. GRFT at concentrations of up to 4 µM did not affect IL-1b and IL-10 release in mouse cells ( Figure 1A ,C). In contrast, ConA induced a massive cytokine secretion of all tested molecules in a concentration dependent manner ( Figure 1 ). In the case of IL-6, there was no change in cytokine release after treatment with 1 µM GRFT ( Figure 1B ). However a slight, but non-significant, increase was observed after treatment with 4 µM GRFT, and this initial and transient effect was not noticeable by 48 h ( Figure 1B ). TNF-α concentrations were elevated after treatment with ConA but not with GRFT, where most values fell below detection levels, similar to PBS treated cells ( Figure 1D ). These data indicate that GRFT does not cause the release of the above key cytokines and chemokines assessed in mouse PBMCs.