I read with interest the recently published study by O’Brien et al1 on valganciclovir versus valaciclovir in prevention of cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation in patients with lymphoid malignancies treated with alemtuzumab-containing regimens. The study was terminated early after enrollment of 40 patients due to CMV reactivation in 7 of 20 patiens on valaciclovir versus 0 of 20 on valganciclovir...

Currently, there is no evidence whether ganciclovir, or its oral prodrug valganciclovir, penetrates into the cerebrospinal fluid of human infants treated for congenital cytomegalovirus infection. Here, we report a case study providing evidence that ganciclovir, administered as valganciclovir, reaches the infant's cerebrospinal fluid when used at the currently recommended dose for congenital cyt...

Recent evidence suggests that wheel running can abolish conditioned place preference (CPP) for cocaine in mice. Running significantly increases the number of new neurons in the hippocampus, and new neurons have been hypothesised to enhance plasticity and behavioral flexibility. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that increased neurogenesis was necessary for exercise to abolish cocaine CPP. Mal...

We thank Jain et al. for their interest and correspondence regarding our recently published study. The authors note that the incidence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease in our retrospective study was much lower than that reported by others. As acknowledged in our article, we did not use routine surveillance to detect CMV viremia and the true rate of CMV infection could have been higher than what...

Cytomegalovirus is highly prevalent in glioblastomas. In 2006, we initiated a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, hypothesis-generating study to examine the safety and potential efficacy of Valganciclovir as an add-on therapy for glioblastoma. Forty-two glioblastoma patients were randomized in double-blind fashion to receive Valganciclovir or placebo in addition to standard therapy fo...

BACKGROUND Human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) replication is critical in the induction and maintenance of Kaposi sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma, and some cases of Castleman disease. In vitro and observational studies suggest that ganciclovir inhibits HHV-8 replication, but no randomized clinical trials have been conducted. METHODS A total of 26 men infected with HHV-8 were randomized to receive ...

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is very common throughout the world, and has become more of a pediatric clinical concern given the high incidence of congenital CMV infections as well as the increasing numbers of immunocompromised patients. Because of this, the need for antiviral therapies in infants and neonates is growing. Currently, there are four antivirals available that are active against ...

and the AUC0 – 12 was 24.5 mg.h/L. After 19 days of treatment, CMV PCR became negative. Oral valganciclovir was stopped after 4 weeks without adverse events. Along with the CMV PCR test becoming negative, proteinuria dramatically decreased, anaemia improved and digestive symptoms disappeared. At the 1 year follow-up, a CMV test was still negative and no relapse of nephrotic syndrome was noticed...

BACKGROUND Valganciclovir, the oral prodrug of ganciclovir, has been demonstrated equivalent to iv ganciclovir for CMV disease treatment in solid organ transplant recipients. Variability in ganciclovir exposure achieved with valganciclovir could be implicated as a contributing factor for explaining variations in the therapeutic response. This prospective observational study aimed to correlate c...