Antiherpetic and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Novel Synthetic Brassinosteroids Analogs

Many viral infections are associated with the development of immunopathologies and autoimmune diseases, of difficult treatment, for which no vaccines are available yet. Obtaining compounds that conjugate both antiviral and immunomodulating activities in the same molecule would be very useful for the prevention and/or treatment of these immunopathologies of viral origin. Within this chapter, we present the evaluation of biological properties of synthetic brassinosteroids (BRs) analogs, and stigmastane and androstane derivatives, as potential antiviral and immunomodulating agents. We chose three synthetic BRs which had exhibited high antiviral activity against different human pathogenic viruses. The new steroidal molecules were designed with chemical modifications from the three BRs, in order to improve their antiviral activity. We also included some structural moieties responsible for the immunommodulating activity of well-known anti-inflammatory steroids.