he drug monosodium luminol ( GVT ® ) preserves thymic epithelial cell ytoarchitecture and allows thymocyte survival in mice infected ith the T cell-tropic , cytopathic retrovirus

A mutant of MoMuLV, called ts1, causes an AIDS-like syndrome in susceptible strains of mice. In mice infected at birth, thymic atrophy, CD4+ T cell loss, body wasting, and death occur by ∼30–40 days postinfection (dpi). We have shown previously that the death of ts1-infected cells is not caused by viral replication per se, but by oxidative stress and apoptosis following their accumulation the ts1 viral envelope precursor protein, gPr80env. In infected mice treated with the antioxidant monosodium -luminol (GVT®), T cell loss and thymic atrophy are delayed for many weeks, and body wasting and death do not occur until long after infected, untreated control mice have died. We show here that GVT treatment of