The Effect of Acyclovir on Human Lymphocyte Cell Division

Abstract

Acyclovir is antibiotics commonly used to treat herpes virus infection, which is one of synthetic nucleosides analogs derived from guanine. This study was aimed to identify the effect of the Acyclovir, as antiviral drug, on the mitosis in human lymphocytes. Concentrations of acyclovir were prepared 40, 80,120,160, 200 and 240 µg/ml and added to phytohemagglutin in treated culture media. Results showed that the average of mitotic index, was dropped sharply and significantly at the 40 µg /ml concentration of Acyclovir to be 14.21 ± 1.48, then the average of mitotic index was increase gradually to reach 60.20 ± 1.00, at the 240 µg/ ml concentration. This study indicated that Acyclovir inhibited human lymphocyte proliferation at low concentrations. Further studies are recommended to study the effect of acyclovir on the mitotic index on human lymphocytes of infected individuals.