Inhibition of herpesvirus multiplication in guinea pig skin by antiviral compounds.

The effects of adenine arabinoside, cytosine arabinoside, iododeoxyuridine, ribavirin, phosphonoacetate and phosphonoformate on virus titers in cutaneous herpesvirus infections of guinea pigs have been determined and compared to their effects on lesion score. Only phosphonoacetate and phosphonoformate caused a reduction in virus titer and lesion score when the drugs were applied topically after symptoms had developed. However, unlike phosphonoacetate, phosphonoformate did not cause local skin irritation. A herpesvirus mutant, inducing a DNA polymerase resistent to phosphonoformate gave rise to an infection in which the virus titer was not reduced by phsophonoformate.