Discovery of New Antiviral Substances

Dear Colleagues,

The chemotherapy of viral infectious diseases is taking an increasingly significant role in the fight against viral infections. This comes as a result of the growing share of infectious diseases in human pathology as well as in the pathology of domestic animals. Vaccine administration is important, and progress has been made in this area, based mainly on technological advances. Nevertheless, the etiotropic therapy of viral infections proves successful mostly through the administration of chemotherapeutic agents.

In recent years, we have witnessed the development of antivirals with high clinical effectiveness against hepatitis C. Effective anti-influenza chemotherapeutics have been introduced. Chemotherapy of HIV infection and infection caused by herpes simplex viruses is becoming more and more widely used in the therapeutic practice. There have been certain advancements in the treatment of adenovirus-induced epidemic keratoconjunctivitis and hepatitis B. The Fort Detrick data on the effective treatment of smallpox are also noteworthy.

The obvious progress made in the field of antiviral chemotherapy is primarily due to: (a) the growing understanding of the molecular biology of viruses; (b) advances in the chemistry of synthetic and natural substances (viral protein ligands and nucleoside analogues); planned synthesis based on quantitative structure–activity relationship; (c) the improvement of the methodology for the study of antiviral substances (in vitro models—including cell-free systems—in vivo models, as well as double-blind clinical trials); (d) the refinement and clarification of the indications for the use of antiviral chemotherapy (especially for dangerous viral infections, infections caused by groups of viruses of multiple types, e.g., rhino-viruses, and by viruses of abnormally high variability, such as influenza A and B, enteroviruses, or caused by viruses whose population is composed of pseudotypes accounting for diverse clinical patterns).

An important step in the etiotropic therapy of viral infections is the use of combinations of antivirals and of combinations of viral replication inhibitors and biological response modifiers (immunomodulators, antioxidants, etc).

The purpose of this Special Issue is to present new effective solutions in antiviral chemotherapy based on the aforementioned research approaches.

Prof. Dr. Angel S. Galabov
Guest Editor

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• antiviral chemotherapy
• virus replication inhibitors
• antivirals