Suppression of viral replication with nucleoside/nucleotide inhibitors has been shown to greatly improve the outcome of chronic HBV infection. ?-l-nucleoside analogues, especially ?-l-deoxycytidine derivatives represent one of the most efficient groups of antiretroviral compounds. We recently described that hydroxylation of the amino group of these ?-l-deoxycytidine derivatives preserved their strong HBV inhibitory activity in vitro, but strongly reduced their cytotoxicity. From this new group of compounds we selected ?-l-2',3'-didehydro-2',3'-dideoxy-N(4)-hydroxy-5-fluorocytidine (l-Hyd4FC) for a first in vivo investigation. The aim of this study was to determine the antiviral activity of l-Hyd4FC in HBV-infected human liver chimeric urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA)/SCID mice.
