Penciclovir

Penciclovir is a synthetic acyclic guanine derivative with antiviral activity used for the treatment of various herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections. It displays activity against multiple laboratory and clinical isolate strains of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), HSV-2, and varicella zoster virus (VZV) in a plaque reduction assay (IC50s = 0.4-3.1 μg/ml). Penciclovir inhibits HSV-1 and HSV-2 replication (IC99s = 0.4 and 0.7 μg/ml, respectively) and DNA synthesis (IC50 = 0.04 μg/ml) in MRC-5 cells.