Antiviral Drugs - Drug Design and Discovery - page 417

For the therapy and prophylaxis of inl uenza virus infections the neuraminidase inhibitors
zanamivir and oseltamivir have acquired increased momentum (the latter being more practical
as it can be administered orally whereas the former has to be administered through (oral) inha-
lation). These neuraminidase inhibitors may be expected to be effective against new inl uenza
virus types or variants for which no vaccines are available. Finally, for the treatment of HCV
infections, the combination of ribavirin with pegylated IFN still stands out as the current choice
of treatment, although it provides a durable response only in a portion of the patients (depending
on the HCV genotype).
FURTHER READINGS
De Clercq, E. 2002. Strategies in the design of antiviral drugs. Nat. Rev. Drug Discov . 1: 13-25.
De Clercq, E. 2003a. Potential of acyclic nucleoside phosphonates in the treatment of DNA virus and retrovirus
infections. Expert Rev. Anti-infect. Ther . 1: 21-43.
De Clercq, E. 2003b. The bicyclam AMD3100 story. Nat. Rev. Drug Discov . 2: 581-587.
De Clercq, E. 2003c. Highly potent and selective inhibition of varicella-zoster virus replication by bicyclic l uro
[2,3-d]pyrimidine nucleoside analogues. Med. Res. Rev . 23: 253-274.
De Clercq, E. 2004a. Discovery and development of BVDU (brivudin) as a therapeutic for the treatment of
herpes zoster. Biochem. Pharmacol . 68: 2301-2315.
De Clercq, E. 2004b. Antivirals and antiviral strategies. Nat. Rev. Microbiol . 2: 704-720.
De Clercq, E. 2006a. Antiviral agents active against inl uenza A viruses. Nat. Rev. Drug Discov . 5: 1015-1025.
De Clercq, E. 2006b. From adefovir to Atripla ™ via tenofovir, Viread ™ and Truvada ™ . Future Virol . 1: 709-715.
De Clercq, E. and Holý, A. 2005. Acyclic nucleoside phosphonates: A key class of antiviral drugs. Nat. Rev.
Drug Discov . 4: 928-940.
*De Clercq, E. 2009. Anti-HIV drugs: 25 compounds approved within 25 years after the discovery of HIV. Int.
I. Antimicrob. Agents , 33, 307-320.
Doms, R.W. 2000. Beyond receptor expression: The inl uence of receptor conformation, density, and afi nity in
HIV-1 infection. Virology 276, 229-237.
Gallant, J.E., DeJesus, E., Arribas, J.R. et al. 2006. Tenofovir DF, emtricitabine, and efavirenz vs. zidovudine,
lamivudine, and efavirenz for HIV. N. Engl. J. Med . 354, 251-260.
Hadziyannis, S.J., Tassopoulos, N.C., Heathcote, E.J. et al. 2005. Long-term therapy with adefovir dipivoxil for
HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B. N. Engl. J. Med . 352: 2673-2681.
Pauwels, R. 2004. New non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) in development for the
treatment of HIV infections. Curr. Opin. Pharmacol . 4: 437-446.
Pauwels, R. 2006. Aspects of successful drug discovery and development. Antiviral Res . 71, 77-89.
Russell, R.J., Haire, L.F., Stevens, D.J. et al. 2006. The structure of H5N1 avian inl uenza neuraminidase
suggests new opportunities for drug design. Nature 443, 45-49.
* At present, 25 compounds have been approved for the treatment of HIV infections.