Clinical Effects and In Vitro Studies of Trifluorothymidine Combined with Interferon- for Treatment of Drug-Resistant and -Sensitive Herpes Simplex Virus Infections
Three AIDS patients with severecutaneous herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection refractory to therapy with acyclovir and foscarnet (2 patients) were treated with a topical preparation of triftuorothymidine (TFT) and interferon-α. Complete healing of lesions occurred in 1 patient; a second had significant regression of the infected area. In the third, the lesion was stabilized twice after application of the preparation and reduced in size after a subsequent treatment. In vitro studies confirmed that isolates from these patients were acyclovir- or acyclovir/foscarnetresistant. In addition, they revealed strong synergy between TFT and interferon-α for these isolates and for strains with wild-typedrug sensitivity profiles. Topical TFT/interferon-a may be of benefit in the therapy of mucocutaneous HSV infections, especiallywhen they are resistant to treatment with systemic antiviral agents.