Inhibitory effects of selected antiviral compounds on newly isolated clinical varicella-zoster virus strains.

Nine anti-herpes compounds, idoxuridine (IDU), bromovinyldeoxyuridine (BVDU), bromovinylarabinofuranosylurasil (BVaraU), carbocyclic bromovinyldeoxyuridine (C-BVDU), chloroethyldeoxyuridine (CEDU), acyclovir (ACV), dihydroxypropoxymethylguanine (DHPG), adenine arabinoside (Ara-A), and phosphonoformate (PFA) were examined for their inhibitory activities against the replication of twenty-six newly isolated clinical strains of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) in human embryonic fibroblast cell cultures. The order of (decreasing) efficacy was: BVaraU greater than BVDU greater than or equal to C-BVDU greater than CEDU greater than or equal to IDU greater than ACV greater than Ara-A greater than DHPG greater than PFA. There was little variation in the susceptibility of the 26 VZV strains to each particular compound, except for one strain which was resistant to IDU.