[The effect of antiviral substances on herpes simplex virus type 1 in cell culture]

Comparative studies were carried out of the antiviral efficacy of 11 substances on the replication of Herpes simplex virus type 1 (strain DA), including compounds with selective antiherpes action--bromovinyldeoxyuridine, virazole, phosphonoformic acid, acycloguanosine, citarabine, vidarabine, iododeoxyuridine, and some nonspecific viral inhibitors with antiherpes effect as distamycin A, tunicamycin and deoxyglucose. The antiherpes activity of the substances was tested in two cell systems: cell strain of human embryonic skin-muscle fibroblasts and a cell line of green monkey kidneys. The dose-response curves and the 50% effective dose were defined for each compound by using a microtissue plate test system. Differences in the values of the 50% effective doses of iododeoxyuridine, phosphonoformic acid and distamycin A for the two types of cultures were found out. Bromovinyldeoxyuridine exhibited the highest antiherpes activity in both types of cells, and it was comparatively more active than citarabine, acycloguanosine or iododeoxyuridine, followed by vidarabine and virazole. The results obtained emphasized the necessity of specifying the experimental conditions for comparative studies.