brivudine (RP 101) / RESprotect, RedHill, SciClone - LARVOL DELTA

Complications and Antiviral Strategies in Herpes Zoster: A Retrospective Evaluation of 50 Patients Treated in a Secondary Care Setting. (PubMed, Infect Drug Resist) - "Demographics, comorbidities, dermatomal involvement, laboratory findings, antiviral therapy (acyclovir, valacyclovir, brivudine), vitamin B12 use, and complications were recorded. The role of vitamin B12 remains uncertain. Larger prospective studies are warranted."

Journal • Retrospective data • Cardiovascular • Diabetes • Herpes Zoster • Hypertension • Infectious Disease • Metabolic Disorders • Neuralgia • Pain • Varicella Zoster

Brivudine for treatment of varicella-zoster virus encephalitis. (PubMed, Int J Infect Dis) - "Herein, we describe the first case of VZV encephalitis with intolerance to intravenous acyclovir that was successfully treated with oral brivudine monotherapy without discernible sequelae. Brivudine is a promising therapy for VZV encephalitis, particularly in cases intolerant to traditional antivirals or complicated by renal impairment."

Journal • CNS Disorders • Herpes Zoster • Renal Disease • Varicella Zoster

Comparative Case Series of Herpes Zoster in Older Immunocompromised Chinese Adults: Clinical, Immunological, and Treatment Profiles in Four Cases Over 60. (PubMed, Infect Drug Resist) - "Selected for their immunocompromised status and prior antiviral failure or renal concerns, patients received oral brivudine (125 mg once daily) with or without intravenous acyclovir, with outcomes assessed via clinical examination, pain scores, and laboratory monitoring over 7-14 days. Compared to previous use of other antivirals, brivudine was better tolerated and did not require renal dose adjustment. In summary, brivudine appears to be a promising option for elderly immunocompromised patients with herpes zoster, offering effective viral control, favorable safety, and improved clinical outcomes."

Journal • Dermatology • Diabetes • Diabetic Nephropathy • Herpes Zoster • Immunology • Inflammatory Arthritis • Lupus • Metabolic Disorders • Pain • Renal Disease • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus • Varicella Zoster

Hidden targets in dermatology: In vitro and In silico inhibitory effects of common 23 dermatologic drugs on human carbonic anhydrase isoenzymes I and II. (PubMed, J Enzyme Inhib Med Chem) - "The most potent inhibitors were isotretinoin for hCA I (Ki= 5.75 µM) and valaciclovir for hCA II (Ki= 5.74 µM). Ketotifen (Ki= 6.98 µM), pantoprazole (Ki= 7.16 µM) and acyclovir (Ki= 7.31 µM) were also potent inhibitors for hCA I. Isotretinoin (Ki= 6.54 µM), brivudine (Ki= 7.44 µM) and fluconazole (Ki= 7.91 µM) were also potent inhibitors for hCA II. Terbinafine hydrochloride was a weak CA inhibitor for both of these isoenzymes (Ki= 20.58 µM for hCA I and 20.32 µM for hCA I)...Molecular docking studies have shown that acitretin and isotretinoin, in particular, will inhibit hCA I at lower concentrations and have higher docking scores. For hCA II, it was shown that Isotretinoin and Ketotifen would inhibit at lower concentrations and have higher placement scores."

Journal • Preclinical • Dermatology

Brivudine as a successful treatment for herpes zoster combined with chickenpox. (PubMed, Postepy Dermatol Alergol) - No abstract available

Journal • Herpes Zoster • Infectious Disease • Varicella Zoster

Herpes Simplex Virus and Drug Resistance - Comprehensive Update on Resistance Mutations and Implications for Clinical Management: A Narrative Review. (PubMed, Clin Microbiol Infect) - "This dataset paves the way to harmonize reporting of DRMs for diagnostic labs and to accelerate genotypic DST interpretation through aggregated data. Ongoing large-scale data collection of genotypic, phenotypic, and clinical data is crucial for evidence-based management of HSV antiviral resistance and clinical guidelines."

Journal • Review • Epstein-Barr Virus Infections • Herpes Simplex • Infectious Disease

Herpes zoster after left nephroureterectomy for renal carcinoma: a case report. (PubMed, BMC Infect Dis) - "Postoperative nerve injury and regeneration may influence varicella-zoster virus latency. This case indicates that brivudine is an effective treatment for herpes zoster in patients with chronic renal insufficiency."

Journal • Clear Cell Carcinoma • Diabetes • Genito-urinary Cancer • Herpes Zoster • Kidney Cancer • Metabolic Disorders • Nephrology • Neuralgia • Oncology • Pain • Renal Cell Carcinoma • Renal Disease • Solid Tumor • Varicella Zoster

Genital Herpes Zoster: A Report of a Rare Case. (PubMed, Cureus) - "The patient was treated with brivudine, mupirocin, and analgesics, resulting in a complete resolution of symptoms. This case highlights the need to consider HZ in the differential diagnosis of genital lesions. Early recognition and treatment of atypical presentations can prevent complications and improve patient outcomes."

Journal • Herpes Simplex • Herpes Zoster • Infectious Disease • Pain • Varicella Zoster

Conditional lethality profiling reveals anticancer mechanisms of action and drug-nutrient interactions. (PubMed, Sci Adv) - "We also characterize a unique dual mechanism for brivudine, a compound approved for antiviral use...Cataloged gene essentiality data further suggest that conditional phenotypes for other compounds are linked to off-target effects. Our findings establish general strategies for identifying drug-nutrient interactions and mechanisms of action by exploiting conditional lethality in cancer cells."

Journal • Oncology

disseminated herpes zoster in an immunocompromised patient (EADV 2024) - "This case report aims to elucidate the clinical presentation, diagnostic challenges, and treatment outcomes of disseminated herpes zoster in a patient with advanced lung cancer undergoing maintenance therapy with Anlotinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor. This case underscores the importance of considering disseminated herpes zoster as a differential diagnosis in immunocompromised patients with malignancies, especially when presenting with atypical or severe skin manifestations. Next-generation sequencing techniques may offer improved diagnostic accuracy for drug- resistant viruses. Brivudine emerges as a potential therapeutic option for herpes zoster resistant to standard acyclovir therapy, although contraindications must be carefully considered."

Clinical • Herpes Zoster • Lung Cancer • Oncology • Solid Tumor • Varicella Zoster

Rare locations of shingles - case series with literature review and treatment evidence analysis (EADV 2024) - "Herpes zoster should not be overlooked in patients with vesicular rash. It may appear in unusual locations. The most commonly used antiviral drugs in shingles are acyclovir, valaciclovir, famciclovir and brivudine."

Clinical • Review • Dermatology • Herpes Zoster • Infectious Disease • Neuralgia • Pain • Varicella Zoster

Primary treatment failure in acute retinal necrosis - A comprehensive review. (PubMed, Indian J Ophthalmol) - "Alternative agents such as foscarnet, cidofovir, and brivudine, as well as combination approaches involving systemic and intravitreal administration, high-dose therapy, judicious use of steroids, and potential treatment-related complications, are discussed. The review also highlights emerging therapies, including vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and natural compounds, offering insights into future directions for addressing this challenging condition."

Journal • Review • Ophthalmology

Combined Effect of Basic Antiherpetic Drugs with a New Inhibitor of the Terminase Complex of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 in Vero Cell Cultures. (PubMed, Dokl Biol Sci) - "Basically new results were for the first time obtained to characterize the combined effect on human herpesvirus infection for LAS-131 used in combination with practically significant antiviral compounds, including the nucleoside analogs acyclovir (ACV), penciclovir (PCV), ganciclovir (GCV), brivudine (BVdU), iododeoxyuridine (IdU), and adenine arabinoside (Ara-A); the nucleoside phosphonate analog cidofovir (CDV); and the pyrophosphate analog foscarnet (FOS). A cytopathic effect (CPE) inhibition assay showed that the drug concentration that inhibited the virus-induced CPE by 50% decreased by a factor of 2 (an additive effect, FOS) or more (a synergistic effect; ACV, PCV, GCV, IdU, BVdU, Ara-A, and CDV) when the drugs were used in combination with LAS-131. Nonpermissive conditions for HSV-1 reproduction were thus created at lower drug concentrations, opening up new real possibilities to control human herpesvirus infection."

Journal • Preclinical • CNS Disorders • Epstein-Barr Virus Infections • Herpes Simplex • Infectious Disease • Ophthalmology

Efficacy and safety of brivudine for the treatment of herpes zoster: a systematic review and meta-analysis. (PubMed, J Dermatolog Treat) - "Brivudine is effective for HZ. However, the evidence on the safety of brivudine is insufficient."

Clinical • Journal • Retrospective data • Review • Herpes Zoster • Neuralgia • Pain • Varicella Zoster

Healthcare Resource Use and Costs Associated with Herpes Zoster/Post-Herpetic Neuralgia Episodes in Italy: A Retrospective Observational Study (ISPOR-EU 2023) - "Adult patients were characterized and followed-up during at least one year 1-period before and after the index-date (first HZ/PHN hospitalization or HZ brivudine prescription)... This real-world analysis showed that HZ poses a substantial economic burden in older adults and individuals with comorbidities, in Italy."

Observational data • Retrospective data • Herpes Zoster • Infectious Disease • Neuralgia • Oncology • Pain • Varicella Zoster

Treatment with brivudine in immunocompromised pediatric patients with herpes zoster. (PubMed, Chemotherapy) - "Oral brivudine was a very effective and well-tolerated therapy in immunocompromised children with HZ infection. The oral administration offers the potential for outpatient treatment of HZ in these patients."

Clinical • Bone Marrow Transplantation • Herpes Zoster • Infectious Disease • Pediatrics • Transplantation • Varicella Zoster

Current scenario and future applicability of antivirals against herpes zoster. (PubMed, Korean J Pain) - "However, limited antivirals are only licensed clinically for the treatment of HZ, including acyclovir, valacyclovir, famciclovir, brivudine, and amenamevir. Fortunately, some new antivirals against different types of Herpesviridae have been investigated and suggested as novel drugs against VZV. Therefore, this review focuses on discussing the difference in efficacy and safety in the currently licensed antivirals for the treatment of HZ, the applicability of future novel antivirals against VZV, and the preventive or therapeutic effects of these antivirals on ZAP or PHN."

Journal • Review • Herpes Zoster • Immunology • Infectious Disease • Neuralgia • Pain • Varicella Zoster

Herpes Zoster in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Prospective Single University Center Study (ACR Convergence 2022) - "HZ treatment was anitiviral agents (n=23) (brivudine=7; acyclovir 6; famciclovir6; valaciclovir4), topic (n=2) and none (n=6). Predictive factors for HZ(Figure 1) were older age ( >65 years), hypertension and treatment with high prednisone dose and antiTNF. HZ is a relative frequent complication of RA. HZ is a relative frequent complication of RA. In our series, although are usually localized, post-herpetic neuralgia is relatively frequent. Probably to include HZ vaccine in our vaccination program of RA may be useful"

Clinical • Cardiovascular • Dermatology • Herpes Zoster • Hypertension • Immunology • Infectious Disease • Inflammatory Arthritis • Neuralgia • Pain • Preventive care • Rheumatoid Arthritis • Rheumatology • Varicella Zoster

Intestinal Apc-inactivation induces HSP25 dependency. (PubMed, EMBO Mol Med) - "We reveal an indispensable role for HSP25 in facilitating Apc-driven transformation, using both in vitro organoid cultures and mouse models, and demonstrate that chemical inhibition of HSP25 using brivudine reduces the development of premalignant adenomas. These findings uncover a hitherto unknown vulnerability in intestinal transformation that could be exploited for the development of chemopreventive strategies in high-risk individuals."

Journal • Colorectal Cancer • Gastrointestinal Cancer • Oncology • Solid Tumor • APC • HSPB1

ASSESSING GENOMIC SAFETY OF ANTIVIRAL NUCLEOSIDE ANALOGS IN HEMATOPOIETIC STEM CELLS (EHA 2022) - "Indeed, we have shown that treatment with the antiviral NA ganciclovir (GCV) after stem cell transplantation induces an increased mutation burden in the hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) of pediatric leukemia patients...Of note, the thymidine analog brivudine showed the highest increase in single base substitutions, which were characterized by a T>C signature, depleted for flanking cytosines...Conclusion Many compounds of the NA class currently prescribed for the treatment of viral infections are mutagenic to healthy cells. This calls for more thorough screening of these drugs, incorporation of information on mutagenicity to healthy cells in drug safety guidelines and patient surveillance over time."

Clinical • Bone Marrow Transplantation • Hematological Malignancies • Infectious Disease • Leukemia • Novel Coronavirus Disease • Oncology • Pediatrics • Transplantation • TMB

Deep Transcriptional Profiling Reveals Microbial Responses To Top Pharmaceutical Compounds (ASM Microbe 2022) - "Gut species transform medications to influence pharmacodynamics (digoxin, brivudine), pharmacokinetics (L-dopa, duloxetine), and toxicity (irinotecan). Statin-modulated sensitivities within Bacteroides species could account for Bacteroidetes depletions observed in statin-consuming cohorts, warranting future studies of efflux pump modulation to alleviate statin-driven dysbiosis. More broadly, the low-cost, scalable transcriptomic pipeline described in this work can be readily applied to phylogenetically diverse gut bacteria to identify novel xenobiotic-bacterial interactions impacting therapeutic outcomes."

Cardiovascular • Gastrointestinal Disorder • Psychiatry

HERPES ZOSTER IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS. PROSPECTIVE SINGLE UNIVERSITY CENTER STUDY (EULAR 2022) - "HZ treatment was anitiviral agents (n=23) (brivudine=7; acyclovir 6; famciclovir6; valaciclovir4), topic (n=2) and none (n=6). Predictive factors for HZ( Figure 1 ) were older age (>65 years), hypertension and treatment with high prednisone dose and antiTNF... HZ is a relative frequent complication of RA. In our series, although are usually localized, post-herpetic neuralgia is relatively frequent. Probably to include HZ vaccine in our vaccination program of RA may be useful."

Clinical • Dermatology • Herpes Zoster • Hypertension • Immunology • Infectious Disease • Inflammatory Arthritis • Neuralgia • Pain • Preventive care • Rheumatoid Arthritis • Rheumatology • Varicella Zoster

Development of Robust Varicella Zoster Virus Luciferase Reporter Viruses for In Vivo Monitoring of Virus Growth and Its Antiviral Inhibition in Culture, Skin, and Humanized Mice. (PubMed, Viruses) - "The ORF57-driven luciferase activity had a short half-life in the presence of foscarnet. The studies reveal that VZV-∆TS had increased sensitivity to brivudine and was highly impaired for skin replication. This is the first report of a phenotype that is associated with the loss of TS."

Journal • Preclinical • Herpes Zoster • Infectious Disease • Varicella Zoster • TYMS

Herpes zoster: A Review of Clinical Manifestations and Management. (PubMed, Viruses) - "The cornerstone of treatment is early intervention with acyclovir or brivudine. VZV reactivation has also emerged as an important point of discussion during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially after vaccination. The objective of this review is to discuss current updates related to clinical presentations, complications, and management of HZ."

Journal • Review • Epstein-Barr Virus Infections • Gastrointestinal Disorder • Herpes Zoster • Human Immunodeficiency Virus • Infectious Disease • Neuralgia • Novel Coronavirus Disease • Oncology • Pain • Varicella Zoster • Vasculitis

Neural Progenitor Cells Expressing Herpes Simplex Virus-Thymidine Kinase for Ablation Have Differential Chemosensitivity to Brivudine and Ganciclovir. (PubMed, Front Cell Neurosci) - "Our findings demonstrate enhanced ablation efficiency and reduced bystander effects when targeting all rapidly dividing cells with combinatorial GCV and BVDU treatment. However, for use in loss of function studies, BVDU alone is optimal due to reduced nonselective cell ablation."

Journal • CNS Disorders • Gene Therapies • Herpes Simplex • Orthopedics • Transplantation