Figure 2. Most Common Mechanism of Acyclovir Resistance in Herpes Simplex Virus Infection

Figure 2. Common Mechanisms of Acyclovir Resistance in HSV Infection

The most common types of acyclovir-resistant HSV infection involve either absent production of viral thymidine kinase (TK-negative mutants), or partially reduced production of viral thymidine kinase (TK-partial mutants). In this illustration, the notation TK- refers to deficient production of viral thymidine kinase, either through TK-negative mutants or TK-partial mutants. As a result of the deficient production of TK, the HSV strains fail to effectively generate acyclovir triphosphate and thus acyclovir does not effectively inhibit viral DNA polymerase.

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