TABLE 1.
Susceptibility of HHV-8 to various antiviral agents
| Drug | Standard dosinga | Peak serum level (μM) (reference) | IC50 (μM)b | Therapeutic ratioc |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acyclovir | 10 mg/kg of body weight i.v. tid | 90 (9) | 31.00 ± 9.00 | 3 |
| Valacyclovir | 2 g p.o. qid | 38 (14) | 1 | |
| Ganciclovir | 5 mg/kg i.v. bid | 32 (7) | 2.61 ± 1.42 | 12 |
| Valganciclovir | 900 mg p.o. bid | 24 (4) | 9 | |
| Adefovir (dipivoxil) | 10 mg p.o. od | 0.069 (15) | 18.00 ± 6.36 | 0.004 |
| Cidofovir | 5 mg/kg i.v. weekly | 72 (12) | 0.43 ± 0.27 | 167 |
| Foscarnet | 90 mg/kg i.v. bid | 766 (1) | 34.15 ± 1.87 | 22 |
a
i.v., intravenous; p.o., oral; od, once a day; bid, twice a day; tid, thrice a day; qid, four times a day.
b
IC50 results are means plus standard deviations of two experiments, and each experiment was performed in triplicate.
c
Therapeutic ratio is defined as the achievable peak serum level for the intravenous (i.e., acyclovir, ganciclovir, cidofovir, and foscarnet) or oral (i.e., valacyclovir, valganciclovir, and adefovir dipivoxil) formulation divided by the drug IC50 value.