A new potent inhibitor of adenosine deaminase (co-vidarabine) was used in combination studies with adenine arabinoside (vidarabine, Vira-ATM) to protect this purine nucleoside from enzymatic deamination to the more weakly active metabolite, hypoxanthine arabinoside. Comparing the combination to vidarabine alone, a significant increase (10-fold) of the antiviral activity of the combined drugs was observed against herpes and vaccinia viruses in tissue culture and subcutaneously, against cranial herpesvirus infections in mice. Several other investigators have also recently reported several-fold enhancement of vidarabine activity by newly described deaminase inhibitors. They observed that plaque formation by several large DNA-containing viruses (herpes, vaccinia, varicella zoster) and an RNA-containing oncogenic virus was markedly prevented by the combination compared to vidarabine alone. In animals, enhanced protection (increased survivors) and/or highly significant increase in the life span of dying mice treated with the 2-drug combination, was also observed compared to vidarabine administered singly. These observations in animals clearly indicate that combination studies with vidarabine (Vira-ATM) and co-vidarabine (deaminase inhibitor) deserve serious consideration as future therapy for systemic virus infections in man including herpesvirus encephalitis.