Chemical Properties of the Antiviral Drug Acyclvoir
Presented are
chemical properties of the antiviral drug Acyclovir,
which is also known under its generic name Zovirax.
This drug is used for the treatment of sexually
transmitted diseases including genital herpes.
It has been nearly quarter of a century
since the antiviral drug Acyclovir was first approved
and brought into the market as one of the most
effective antiviral drugs for the treatment of
genital herpes. One of the characteristics why
Acyclovir has become one of the most commonly
used as well as effective drug is that it inhibits
low toxic properties, and acts as a resistance
agent even after long duration of usage.
Another important chemical property
associated with Acyclovir is that during the course
of its activity against the virus such as genital
herpes, the drug convincingly covers more than
one affected area. In addition, the drug also
acts to eliminate the growing chain of DNA’s,
that have a tendency of replicating or reproducing
virus, thus its activity as a "prodrug"
as well.
A brief on the extremely low toxicity
levels found from the usage of Acyclovir reveals
that the chemistry of the drug is actually "inactivate
unless it is phosphorylated. This pre-condition
or pre-requisite of the Acyclovir drug is mediated
by the herpes virus enzyme Thymidine Kinase, something,
which is, absent in the host cells. Due to this
particular property, non-infected cells are only
exposed to the inactive, non-toxic, non-phosphorylated
Acyclovir.
In spite of the immense popularity
and safety of the Acyclovir drug, it does suffer from a drawback,
one that disallows the drug to easily absorb with
the plasma of the patient. Thus, it has been found
that only 15 to 20 percent of the patients who
were given the drug orally showed positive results
as far as the absorption with the blood factor
was involved. In turn, this necessitated the need
for larger and continuous forms of drug therapy,
which is not expensive for the average patient,
the duration too may become a problem.
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