Anti-Infective
Drug Design and Discovery
Erik De Clercq, Rega Institute for Medical Research,
Belgium
Erik De Clercq - CV - PDF
for his List of publication
- PDF
Among the anti-infective drugs which have recently
been approved for clinical use, the antiviral agents, following
the trend set by anti-bacterials (antibiotics) a few decades
ago, have taken the lead. In recent years more than forty
antiviral compounds have been formally licensed, more than
half of which for use in the treatment of human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV) infections (AIDS). Others have been licensed for
the treatment of herpesvirus infections, hepatitis B and C,
and influenza. For other virus infections, i.e. pox (variola,
vaccinia), hemorrhagic fever virus, picornavirus, flavivirus,
papilloma- and adenovirus infections, effective antiviral
drugs still have to be developed or submitted to clinical
trials. Even for those virus infections that can already be
controlled by therapeutic modalities, the search for additional
molecular targets and new treatment strategies should be pursued.
The development of antiviral agents requires a multidisciplinary
approach encompassing many different fields, such as molecular
modeling, medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology,
toxicology and clinical medicine. Most importantly, the development
of antiviral agents may learn from (and should not been dissociated
from) other anti-infectives, in particular those compounds
targeted at bacterial infections (i.e. tuberculosis) and protozoal
infections (i.e. malaria) and other parasitic diseases, as
evidence is growing for compounds trespassing these borders,
both from a structure-activity relationship (SAR) and mode
of action viewpoint.
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