Petter I. Andersen, A. Ianevski, H. Lysvand, A. Vitkauskienė, Valentyn Oksenych, M. Bjørås, K. Telling, I. Lutsar, U. Dumpis, Y. Irie, T. Tenson, A. Kantele, D. Kainov
International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2020
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.
Cited by 25 publications.
Field of study: Medicine