Aurintricarboxylic acid and Evans Blue represent two different classes of anionic compounds which selectively inhibit the cytopathogenicity of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III/lymphadenopathy-associated virus.

Aurintricarboxylic acid, an anionic triphenylmethane dye, and Evans Blue, an anionic compound structurally related to suramin, are, like suramin itself, inhibitors of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III)/-lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV) in vitro. These compounds may be targeted, at least in part, at the HTLV-III/LAV reverse transcriptase. The lack of any appreciable cytostatic action of aurintricarboxylic acid, Evans Blue and suramin against several murine and human cell lines, their inability to inhibit cellular DNA, RNA and protein synthesis, and their high lethal dose-50 (greater than or equal to 0.340 g/kg) for NMRI mice point to the selectivity of the compounds as inhibitors of HTLV-III/LAV.