Publications

A decade ago, standard therapy against chronic hepatitis B virus infections only consisted of lamivudine or IFN-alpha. Treatment with lamivudine and IFN has been compounded by, respectively, the emergence of drug-resistant virus strains and the appearance of serious side effects. In the last 10 years, hepatitis B treatment has made much progress. Several treatments are now licensed for the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B and others are under development. Here, we provide an overview of the potential and mode of action of anti-HBV agents that are currently available, and/or may become available in the near future. Foremost among these newer compounds are adefovir dipivoxil, entecavir and telbivudine.

Ten 2-aryl or heteroaryl-3-nitrosoimidazo[1,2-a]pyridine derivatives were synthesised as potential antiretroviral agents. The new compounds were characterized by elemental analysis, 1H NMR, and by crystallography for (14). The compounds were devoid of any activity against HIV-1 or HIV-2.

The synthesis of a series of 9-(2-phosphonomethoxyalkyl) derivatives of 6-(aminomethyl)purine 11 , 2-amino-6-(aminomethyl)purine 12 and purine-6-carboxamidine 14 is reported. The 6-cyanopurines 1 and 2 were selectively alkylated with 2-[bis(isopropyloxy)phosphonylmethoxy]alkyl synthons 3 and 4 at the 9-position. Catalytic hydrogenation of the obtained 9-{2-[bis(isopropyloxy)phosphonylmethoxy]alkyl}-6-cyanopurines 9 and 10 followed by treatment with bromotrimethylsilane afforded the title compounds 11 and 12 . Analogous acyclic nucleotides derived from purine-6-carboxamidines 14 were prepared from the cyanopurines 9a and 10a by treatment with sodium methoxide and ammonium chloride followed by deprotection. Compounds 11 and 12 exhibited moderate activity (MIC 50 = 3-50 μg/ml) against herpes simplex virus type 1, varicella-zoster virus and Moloney murine sarcoma virus in vitro.

Rapid and efficient syntheses for the preparation of 2'-deoxy-5-vinyluridine and 2'-deoxy-5-vinylcytidine are described starting from nucleoside precursors. Contrary to some previous reports, 2-deoxy-5-vinyluridine has be found to be quite stable under normal laboratory conditions but when tested in animals shows neither toxicity nor anti-leukemic (L1210 cells) or anti-parasitic (Plasmodium berghei) activity. 2'-Deoxy-5-vinylcytidine appears to polymerise readily. It is much less toxic to cell cultures than 2'-deoxy-5'vinyluridine but is almost as active against herpes virus replication (ID50:0.2 microgram/ml) for both type 1 and type 2 herpes virus (selectivity index:225).

Abstract Synthetisiert nach bekannten Methoden werden die Verbindungen (I) und (II), deren antivirale und cytotoxische Eigenschaften untersucht werden.

CPT clocks are studied worldwide as miniature frequency standards for portable applications. To improve their frequency stability, we have investigated the optimum operating conditions (cell temperature, laser intensity, interrogation method) and measured the corresponding frequency shifts and stability. Compared to the continuous CPT interrogation, the pulsed interrogation reduces the light shift by a factor 300 and improves the frequency stability by a factor 10. The short term frequency stability is 9 x 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-3</sup> at 1 s, limited to 2 x 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-3</sup> after 300 s.

An animal model that mimics progressive disseminated vaccinia was elaborated. To this end nude (athymic) mice were inoculated intracutaneously with vaccinia virus in the lumbosacral area. Viral replication (DNA) in the skin was detected as early as day 2 postinfection (p.i.). Mice developed typical vaccinia lesions at the site of inoculation by day 4 to 6 p.i. By about 2 weeks p.i., the infection had spread all over the body, a situation reminiscent of disseminated vaccinia in humans. The infection resulted in viremia and spread of the virus to visceral organs, as well as to the brain. Topical treatment with cidofovir, initiated at the day of infection or at day 1 p.i., completely protected against virus-induced cutaneous lesions and against associated mortality. When treatment was initiated at a later time (day 2 to 5 p.i.), a partial but marked protective effect was noted, which can be explained by the fact that by that time, the virus had spread from the skin to the visceral organs. Next, infected animals were left untreated until the time ( approximately 2 weeks p.i.) at which disseminated vaccinia had developed. When systemic treatment with cidofovir was initiated at that time, it caused lesions to heal and regress. In most of these animals, lesions had completely (or almost completely) disappeared by day 10 to 15 after the start of therapy. The observation that cidofovir is able to cause healing of disseminated vaccinia lesions in animals should have implications for the therapy of complications of vaccination against smallpox.