Anti - herpetic activity of a combination of L - asparaginase and cytosine arabinoside used in vitro ROGER CAPPEL JEAN KLASTERSKY LISE

THE discovery of the antiviral properties of 5-iodo2'-deoxyuridine (IDU), arabinoside cytosine (ARAC), L-asparaginase and of some derivatives of rifampicin holds out new perspectives for the treatment of severe viral diseases, such as herpetic encephalitis and opportunistic viral illnesses in the immuno-depressed host. For these infections a valuable chemotherapeutic regimen still remains to be discovered. Therefore, we have invesigated in vitro the antiviral activity of IDU, Ara-C and Lasparaginase and the efficacy of their combinations against a strain of herpes simplex virus. To keep this note brief, we will report here only a few preliminary results obtained in our laboratory with the combinations Ara-C/L-asparaginase and IDU/L-asparaginase. The antiviral activity of these two associations of antiviral drugs was tested using two methods: firstly, the technique using the inhibition of the formation of viral plaques; and secondly a micromethod based on a technique used by others to investigate mechanisms of cellular immunity (Takasugi & Klein, 1970). Each well of a Terasaki's plaque, containing 500 cells, was inoculated with 10 ,ul of medium 199 with 1000 TCD50 of the test virus. After 2 hr, the