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Early Viral Entry Assays for the Identification and Evaluation of Antiviral Compounds
Published on: October 29, 2015
Discovery and development of safe-in-man broad-spectrum antiviral agents
Petter I Andersen1, Aleksandr Ianevski1, Hilde Lysvand1
1Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 7028 Trondheim, Norway.
Abstract:
Viral diseases are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. Virus-specific vaccines and antiviral drugs are the most powerful tools to combat viral diseases. However, broad-spectrum antiviral agents (BSAAs, i.e. compounds targeting viruses belonging to two or more viral families) could provide additional protection of the general population from emerging and re-emerging viral diseases, reinforcing the arsenal of available antiviral options. Here, we review discovery and development of BSAAs and summarize the information on 120 safe-in-man agents in a freely accessible database (https://drugvirus.info/). Future and ongoing pre-clinical and clinical studies will increase the number of BSAAs, expand the spectrum of their indications, and identify drug combinations for treatment of emerging and re-emerging viral infections as well as co-infections.
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