The pyrimidine deoxyribonucleoside kinase (dPK) genes from five wild-type and four acyclovir-resistant varicella-zoster virus (VZV) strains were studied. One of the acyclovir-resistant strains was isolated from a patient receiving chronic acyclovir therapy. Acyclovir-resistant strains expressed the 1.8 kb VZV dPK transcript but lacked dPK activity. To determine the basis for the lack of enzyme ...

Treatment of cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis with oral ganciclovir results in relatively low plasma concentrations of drug, which theoretically could cause more frequent viral resistance compared with intravenous (iv) ganciclovir. By use of a plaque-reduction assay to quantify phenotypic sensitivity to ganciclovir, virus isolates were studied from patients with CMV retinitis participating in fo...

Fifty patients presenting with first episode genital herpes were randomly allocated to seven day treatment with either oral acyclovir plus 5% acyclovir cream or oral acyclovir plus matching placebo cream. Combined treatment with oral and topical acyclovir was associated with a shorter duration of itching in women alone (p = 0.04) but gave no clinical relief of other symptoms, the time to healin...

BACKGROUND Herpes zoster is a disease caused by reactivation of varicella-zoster virus in sensory cranial nerves and dorsal root ganglion. Our presumption was that epidural administration of acyclovir near the viral burden could be more advantageous than intravenous (IV) administration. The cerebrospinal fluid concentration of acyclovir after epidural administration was determined to be higher ...

EVALUATION OF TOPICAL KETOCONAZOL $ EFFECTS ON THE REGENERATION OF COP.NRAL EPITHELIUM EXPERIMENTAL TUDY IN RABBITS. JORGE E.N.l JORGE E.C.1 MOUES SILVA M.R.B.1 VANE, L.A.2 1 Dep,mlenL Of GQhth.hology, ""iver‘iddc B*t.d"a, Paulill* (S.PS"lO, Brartt) 2 Departme"t or A"elttwlolo,y, "niversldade Eer.d"at Fxu,ista (S.PS"lO, Br*r*l) e 29 male rabbits were submitted to bilateral epithelisl sblstio" o...

the effects of allopurinol, acyclovir and theophylline on the activity of adenosine deaminase (ada) were studied in 50 mm sodium phosphate buffer ph 7.5 at 27°c, using a uv– vis spectrophotometer. adenosine deaminase is inhibited by these ligands, via different types of inhibition. allopurinol, as a transition state analog of xanthine oxidase, and acyclovir competitively inhibit the catalytic a...

BACKGROUND Ganciclovir, a drug against cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, is generally well tolerated, but can cause neurotoxicity such as encephalopathy. Although ganciclovir-induced encephalopathy has been described in several reports, a literature search revealed that ganciclovir concentrations in the blood or cerebrospinal fluid were previously measured in only 3 patients with encephalopathy....

A "suicide" system based on thymidine kinase-ganciclovir combination was developed and tested in a Leishmania major experimental model. Susceptible BALB/c mice were infected with L. major expressing the thymidine kinase gene of herpes simplex virus type 1 and treated for 2 consecutive weeks with 7.5 mg/kg/day ganciclovir at different times from the initial infection. Ganciclovir treatment at va...

OBJECTIVE Cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis is a relatively common opportunistic infection in late-stage HIV disease, causing significant morbidity and mortality. Prophylactic use of oral ganciclovir has recently been shown to decrease the incidence of CMV retinitis but is relatively expensive and may not be very well tolerated by many patients. We performed a decision analysis to assess the cost...