Generalized cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and CMV-induced pneumonitis in the rat: combined effect of 9-(1,3-dihydroxy-2-propoxymethyl)guanine and specific antibody treatment.
The combined effect of 9-(1,3-dihydroxy-2-propoxymethyl)guanine (DHPG, ganciclovir) and hyper immune serum (HIS) was studied in two different rat models. In the first model, a lethal generalized rat cytomegalovirus (RCMV) infection was established in immunosuppressed Brown Norway (BN) rats. Treatment with DHPG or hyper immune serum (HIS) effectively reduced both mortality rate and virus titers in the liver and lungs. By combined treatment the effective dose of both DHPG and HIS was reduced to 25%. The fractionary effective dose was 0.5, indicating a moderate synergistic effect on survival. Combined treatment also established a significant reduction of virus titers in lungs and liver (P