These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Antiviral activity of arabinosylthymine in herpesviral replication: mechanism of action in vivo and in vitro.
    Author: Aswell JF, Allen GP, Jamieson AT, Campbell DE, Gentry GA.
    Journal: Antimicrob Agents Chemother; 1977 Aug; 12(2):243-54. PubMed ID: 197886.
    Abstract:
    1-beta-d-Arabinofuranosylthymine (ara-T), a metabolite of the sponge Tethya crypta, has shown selective activity against herpes simplex virus (HSV) replication (G. A. Gentry and J. F. Aswell, Virology 65:294-296, 1975). Analysis of HSV-infected and uninfected cell lysates by CsCl isopycnic centrifugation showed that ara-T blocked the incorporation of [(3)H]hypoxanthine into viral deoxyribonucleic acid and, to a large extent, into host deoxyribonucleic acid of infected (but not uninfected) cells. Additional experiments with [gamma-(32)P]adenosine 5'-triphosphate as a radiophosphate donor demonstrated that ara-T is phosphorylated by extracts of HSV-infected BHK cells and not by those of uninfected cells. At an ara-T concentration that almost completely inhibited the growth of LM cells, which had been transformed to a pyrimidine deoxyribonucleoside kinase(+) (dPyK(+)) phenotype by ultraviolet-inactivated HSV-1, the growth of uninfected LM cells was not affected. These results indicate that the viral dPyK is responsible for the selective antiviral activity of ara-T. This conclusion was further supported by experiments that showed that the replication of a variety of dPyK(-) mutants of HSV-1 and HSV-2 were not affected by ara-T and that ara-T inhibited the phosphorylation of deoxycytidine and deoxythymidine by HSV-1 dPyK, but not by host deoxycytidine and deoxythymidine kinases, respectively. Ara-T also selectively inhibited the replication of equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) in vitro and was effective against EHV-1 infection in vivo in hamsters. Further, EHV-1 was inhibited by ara-T and by bromodeoxyuridine in LM cells lacking a cytosol thymidine kinase, suggesting that EHV-1 induces a dPyK. Finally, spectrophotometric assay for thymine suggested that ara-T is not a substrate for nucleoside phosphorylase of hamster liver, and a microbiological assay indicated that substantial amounts of ara-T were excreted in the urine of uninfected hamsters that had received a single injection of 5 mg of ara-T, the amount given in each injection in the in vivo experiments with EHV-1.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]