Infectious Disorders - Drug Targets (Formerly Current Drug Targets - Infectious Disorders) - Volume 6, Issue 1, 2006

Infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects 170 million people worldwide. Most infections become chronic and slowly evolve to cirrhosis, liver failure, and hepatocellular carcinoma in a considerable fraction of patients. Due the chronic nature of the infection, its high prevalence, and the significant morbidity of the resulting disease, HCV will continue to represent a serious global health threat for many years to come. Our Read More

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS3.4A protease, which is essential for viral replication, is considered one of the most attractive targets for developing novel anti-HCV therapies. However, discovery of potent and selective smallmolecule inhibitors of HCV NS3.4A protease as oral drug candidates has been hampered by the shallow substrate-binding groove of the protease. Serine trap warheads have been used to covalently anchor inh Read More

Of the 30 compounds currently marketed in the United States for treatment of viral infections, 15 are nucleoside analogs, demonstrating the utility of this class of compound as a source of antiviral drugs. The success of nucleoside analogs in treating other viral infections provides a compelling rationale for the significant effort that is currently being devoted to the discovery and development of nucleoside analogs to treat infecti Read More

The human and monetary costs of chronic hepatitis C and the complications arising from this disease emphasize the urgency to find a treatment for Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infected patients. The current standard of treatment for patients chronically infected with HCV is combination therapy with pegylated interferon plus ribavirin. Recently, viral enzymes have become the target of efforts to develop small molecule inhibitors i Read More

RNA interference (RNAi) is gaining favor as a potential therapeutic option for the treatment of Hepatitis C virus infections. RNAi, first discovered in plants, induces sequence specific degradation of messenger RNA following the introduction of short interference RNA (siRNA). RNAi is a natural defense mechanism used by plants to combat viral infections, and the discovery of RNAi activity in mammalian cells has prompted seve Read More

One third of HIV-infected individuals worldwide suffer from chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Two main reasons justify considering HCV therapy as a priority in HIV-coinfected patients. First, these patients have more rapid liver disease progression, and second, they have a higher risk of developing hepatotoxicity following the initiation of antiretroviral therapy. Unfortunately, HCV therapy is associated with lower respon Read More