Background
The National Cancer Institute's AIDS antiviral screen was developed as an effort to discover new compounds capable of inhibiting the HIV virus. The development and maintenance of this screen is the responsibility of DTP's Screening Technologies Branch.
Technical Description
The screen utilized a soluble formazan assay to measure protection of human CEM cells from HIV-1 infection. Full details were published in Weislow, et. al. J. Nat. Cancer Inst. 81:577-586(1989). The screen was operated under contract at the Frederick Cancer Research and Development Facility.
Results
Compounds able to provide at least 50% protection to the CEM cells were retested. Compounds that provided at least 50% protection on retest were listed as moderately active. Compounds that reproducibly provided 100% protection were listed as confirmed active. Compounds not meeting these criteria were listed as confirmed inactive. Note that the inability to provide protection could be due to toxicity.