Inhibition of giant cell formation by compound 48/80 after infection with herpesvirus hominis

Choline kinase has been found to be a soluble enzyme with a molecular weight of 105,000 in the cytoplasm of primary rabbit kidney cells. It has been purified 150-fold. It was investigated whether the inhibiting effect of Cpd 48/80 on virus-induced giant cell formation is due to interference with this enzyme. Cpd 48/80-dimer was shown to inhibit the choline kinase activityin vitro without a concomitant inhibition of giant cell formation. Likewise, another competitive inhibitor of choline kinase, purinyl-6-histamine, does not prevent giant cell formation. This finding suggests that there is no correlation between choline kinase activity and giant cell formation.