The Antiviral Activity of Tetrachloro Decaoxide against Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 and the Virucidal Effect of the Drug

At the recommended clinical dose for direct application to infected wounds tetrachloro decaoxide (TCDO) (1.0×concentration TCDO) alone or in combination with haemoglobin proved to be cytotoxic for BHK and Flow 2002 cells, but at ≤0.1 TCDO/haem concentration BHK-21 cells tolerated treatment with the drug for 24 h retaining ≥80% cell viability. The in vitro cytotoxic effect is only partially reversible ; but this could not explain the strong antiviral effect of TCDO/haem against herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) growing in BHK cells