CCB and KF1 cell lines were incubated with T-ACV at concentrations of 0, 66.67, and 133.33 μM for three days and toxicity examined with MTT and CV assays. To investigate the antiviral activity of T-ACV, the lines were infected with CyHV-3 or mock infected and incubated for three days with the drug at concentrations of 0 or 66.67 μM. The activity of T-ACV was evaluated by plaque assay and TaqMan qPCR.
T-ACV at a concentration of 66.67 μM displayed low toxicity and inhibited CyHV-3 activity by 13–29%, varying by cell line and method.
The low anti-CyHV-3 activity of T-ACV indicates that it would be reasonable to screen several tricyclic derivatives of acyclovir for such activity.