Kinetics of the interaction of monophosphates of the antiviral nucleosides 2'-fluoro-1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylpyrimidine and (E)-5-(2-bromovinyl)-2'-deoxyuridine with thymidylate kinases from Vero cells and herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2

The affinities of the monophosphates of 2'-fluoro-5-iodo-1-beta-D-arabinofuranosyluracil and its 5-methyl analog for cellular thymidylate kinase were two or more orders of magnitude greater than for the thymidine-thymidylate kinases from herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2. In contrast, the monophosphate of (E)-5-(2-bromovinyl)-2'-deoxyuridine was found to have a higher affinity for the viral enzymes than for the cellular enzyme.