Evaluation of the antiviral activity of anthraquinones, anthrones and anthraquinone derivatives against human cytomegalovirus.

A number of anthraquinones, anthrones and anthraquinone derivatives were evaluated for antiviral activity against human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) as well as for cytotoxicity. Of those compounds evaluated, quinalizarin, emodin, rhein, hypericin, protohypericin, alizarin, emodin bianthrone and emodin anthrone showed antiviral activity against a normal laboratory HCMV strain, AD-169. When tested against a ganciclovir-resistant strain of HCMV, the EC50 values for quinalizarin, rhein and alizarin were superior to the values obtained for the AD-169 strain of HCMV. These results suggest that these compounds will be useful as prototypes for synthesizing a class of anti-HCMV drugs that are effective against ganciclovir-sensitive and -resistant strains of HCMV.