The effect of distamycin A on some biochemical functions of tissue cultures infected with Herpes simplex virus.

The antibiotic distamycin A displays no inhibition of protein synthesis in HeLa cell cultures. In HSV infected HeLa cell monolayers the drug exerts a partial inhibition of virus induced thymidine kinase synthesis but is devoid of inhibitory effect on the increase of activity of DNA polymerase and on total DNA synthesis. The antiviral activity of distamycin A is based on a mechanism which appears to be different from that displayed by other drugs such as actinomycin and IUD.