The effect of 2'-fluoro-2'-deoxycytidine on herpes virus growth

The effect of 2'-fluoro-2'-deoxycytidine (dCfl) on the growth of certain viruses of the herpes type was investigated. It is shown that the compound has considerable anti-viral activity against HSV-I, HSV-II, pseudorabies virus and equine abortion virus. It has an effect comparable to that of araC and is more efficient than br5dC, but less so than acyclovir. Experiments with thymidine kinase-negative strains of HSV-I indicated that dCfl was phosphorylated by the viral kinase, and its Km appears to be low and close to that of thymidine. Density gradient centrifugation enabled us to show that dCfl was incorporated into cellular and viral DNA and RNA. The cytotoxic activity of dCfl appears to be about 10-times smaller than that of araC. Removal of the nucleoside analog, washing and replacement with deoxycytidine reversed this effect, indicating rather a cytostatic than cytotoxic effect.