In vitro effect of some nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors against HSV-1 replication.

The current study was designed to investigate the effects of some nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) on HSV-1 infection. Initially, the SwissTargetPrediction server was used to predict the interactions between HSV-1 thymidine kinase and acyclovir, stavudine, zidovudine, didanosine, and entecavir. The effect of each component on Vero cell viability was assessed by the MTT assay. After treatment, the cell supernatants were collected, and HSV-1 replication was analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR. The qPCR results revealed that viral titers were reduced 41, 40, 19, 44, and 31-fold in the presence of acyclovir, zidovudine, stavudine, didanosine, and entecavir, respectively. Our findings indicate that NRTIs significantly reduce HSV-1 replication in cell culture.