ELSEVIER Antiviral Research 24 (1994) 27-35 Antiviral Research Topical CTC-96 accelerates wart growth in rabbits infected with cottontail rabbit papillomavirus Ronald S. Ostrow a'b'*, Susan Coughlin a, Ronald C. McGlennen c, Zhanjiang Liu a'b, Daniel Zelterman d, Anthony J. Faras a'b alnstitute of Human Genetics, Medical School, University of Minnesota, Harvard Street at East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA bDepartment of Microbiology, Medical School, University of Minnesota, Harvard Street at East River Road, Minneapolis, M N 55455, USA CDepartment of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Medical School, University of Minnesota, Harvard Street at East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA aDivision of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Harvard Street at East River Road, Minneapolis, M N 55455, USA (Received 12 August 1993; accepted 9 February 1994) Abstract CTC-96, a cobalt containing complex, was tested as a putative topical therapeutic agent for the treatment of papillomavirus-induced tumors in our cottontail rabbit papillomavirus (CRPV)-rabbit model system. Following experimental infection of domestic rabbits with CRPV, CTC-96 was applied to infection sites twice daily, 5 days a week for a total of 8 weeks. Two levels of concentrations of aqueous CTC-96 were compared to placebo control-treated animals. With increasing dose of CTC-96 we observed tumors earlier, larger, and more often across eight infected sites on each animal. Key words." Papillomavirus; Rabbit; CTC-96; Topical application 1. Introduction Our laboratory and others have used cottontail rabbit papillomavirus (CRPV) to ~ponding author: Ronald S. Ostrow, PhD, Box 206 UMHC, Institute of Human Genetics, Uni- versity of Minnesota, Harvard Street at East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. 0166-3542/94/$07.00 © 1994 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved SSDI 0166-3542(94)00005-S