N-acetylcysteine enhances T cell functions and T cell growth in culture.

N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) is highly nontoxic for peripheral blood T cells and immunostimulatory enhancing T cell functions such as mitogenesis, interleukin-2 (IL-2) production, and growth in culture. NAC has been proposed for the treatment of AIDS based on its inhibition of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication in cultured cells. Therefore its effect on normal T cells from 10 young donors and one elderly donor has been investigated as a prelude to clinical consideration. T cell function was evaluated in the presence and absence of accessory cells. With concanavalin A and anti-CD3 activation, NAC enhanced mitogenesis by approximately 2- to 2.5-fold at 5-10 mM. Mitogenesis of purified T cells with anti-CD2 was not affected by NAC; in the presence of accessory cells, NAC enhanced mitogenesis by approximately 2-fold at 1-10 mM. Importantly, NAC levels above 10 mM completely inhibited activation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells by anti-CD2. IL-2 secreted by T cells was also enhanced by NAC, approximately 1.5-fold, but IL-2 secreted by cells from old donors was enhanced by 3-fold. In cultures of peripheral blood T cells, NAC (10 mM) stimulated growth by at least 4- to 6-fold after two passages. These results show that NAC, nontoxic even at 20 mM, is an effective enhancer of T cell function and a remarkable enhancer of growth. Results from other laboratories show that NAC, which increases glutathione levels, suppresses HIV replication presumably via suppression of the activation of transcriptional factor NF-kappa B.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)