Brivudine is an antiviral drug used in the treatment of herpes zoster. Brivudine is an analogue of the nucleoside thymidine. The drug works because it is able to be incorporated into the viral DNA, but then blocks the action of DNA polymerases, thus inhibiting viral replication. The active compound is the 5'-triphosphate of BVDU, which is formed in subsequent phosphorylations by viral thymidine kinase and presumably by nucleoside diphosphate kinase. Brivudine is a similar drug to acyclovir[clarification needed]. The compound was first synthesized by scientists at the University of Birmingham in the UK in the 1970s. It was shown to be a potent inhibitor of the herpes simplex virus Type 1 (HSV-1) as well as the varicella zoster virus (VZV) by Erik De Clercq at the Rega Institute for Medical Research in Belgium in 1979.
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