Abstract
Purpose: :
Around one million people are suffered from adenoviral keratoconjunctivitis in a year and it is recognized as one of the major pathogens of ophthalmological nosocomial infection in Japan. Although cidofovir may be used systemically for immunocompromised patients in disseminated adenoviral infection, no specific anti–adenoviral agent is established for the treatment of adenoviral infection. We have evaluated anti–adenoviral effect of anti–HIV agents in this study.
Methods: :
Five anti–HIV agents, zalcitabin, sanilbudine, nevirapine, indinavir and amprenavir were enrolled in the in vitro evaluation. A549 cells were used for viral cell culture and adenovirus serotypes 3, 4, 8, 19 and 37 were used. After calculating CC50 of each agent by MTS method, adenovirus was cultivated with the agents for seven days and extracted adenoviral DNA was quantitatively measured by real–time PCR.
Results: :
Among anti–HIV drugs, zalcitabin and sanilbudine, nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, showed significant anti–adenoviral activity, and in contrast, nevirapine, non–nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, and indinavir and amprenavir, protease inhibitors, were ineffective to adenovirus.
Conclusions: :
These results indicate that zalcitabin and sanilbudine are possible candidates of adenoviral infection including keratoconjunctivitis and anti–adenoviral effect might depend on the pharmacological property among anti–HIV agents. Chemical property, clinical safety for systemic and local application should be surveyed for these drugs to be accepted for the treatment of adenovirus in clinical situation.
Keywords: antiviral drugs • adenovirus • conjunctivitis