Good morning everyone and welcome back. Today we're going to be talking about acyclovir. Acyclovir is an antiviral drug and it works by inhibiting the viral DNA synthesis. In an infected cell, the cell will try to synthesize the viral DNA, so it will use adenosine, guanosine and other DNA building blocks.
Acyclovir is basically a rigged guanosine, so whenever the cell tries to make new viral DNA, it will use this rigged or damaged guanosine which will result in defected DNA but that does not mean that it inhibits the DNA synthesis of all the cells in the body because that's chemotherapy and acyclovir is not chemotherapy so acyclovir is geniusly designed to only be activated inside infected cells because it requires activation by the enzyme thymidine kinase which is only present in infected cells So in short, acyclovir is a defected guanosine which the infected cell will use to build defected DNA. It's used for herpesviruses type 1, type 2 and type 3, which are herpes simplex viruses and varicella viruses. However, at very high concentration, it can also be used for herpes type 4, which is Epstein-Barr virus. The best time to use acyclovir is when symptoms first occur.
Acyclovir can easily crystallize in the kidneys and cause renal damage, especially when used IV. Viruses can develop resistance to acyclovir by mutating their thymidine kinase, which activates acyclovir. This happens exclusively in HIV patients.
And here's a small quiz. So how do we minimize the renal damage associated with a cycle of ear use? And here is the answer. Alright guys, that's everything I've got.
Hopefully, I made this easier for you. Thanks again for watching and I'll see you guys later.