Antiviral agents targeting the influenza virus: a review and publication analysis

Abstract

Influenza is a serious infectious disease, which is life-threatening especially in children, seniors and immunocompromised patients. In addition to vaccination, the development of new anti-influenza agents represents a crucial defence strategy to combat seasonal and pandemic influenza strains. At present most attention is paid to the development of inhibitors of influenza neuraminidase, which has been established as a key drug target for the prophylaxis and treatment of influenza infections. However, the emergence of drug-resistant influenza variants highlights the need of continuously innovative strategies for the development of new drugs with improved antiviral effects, higher safety and increased tolerability. In this review article, an analysis of publications describing anti-influenza agents indexed in the Web of Science ® database has been carried out. The most important publications are presented in tables and are characterised by several key words, abstracts and references. The presented publications have been sorted according to five basic criteria: (i) review articles, (ii) design, synthesis and evaluation of new anti-influenza drugs, (iii) major classes of anti-influenza drugs, (iv) combination therapy of influenza infections and (v) influenza drug resistance. The design of this review article allows us to offer a complex overview of known antiviral agents targeting influenza viruses, facilitates easy and rapid orientation in numerous publications written on this subject, and aids the gathering of required data.

Immune Responses to Influenza Virus and Its Correlation to Age and Inherited Factors

“…Influenza virus is a major pathogen that represents an ongoing health threat to several species as diverse as poultry, swine, and mammals including humans, generally via respiratory morbidity and mortality (Eyer and Hruska, 2013). Influenza virus is a member of the Orthomyxoviridae family with an enveloped, negative sense-single stranded RNA (Zhang et al, 2013).…”

The Central Role of Non-Structural Protein 1 (NS1) in Influenza Biology and Infection

“…With the high viral mutation rates and resistance-related problems associated with the commonly used therapeutic targets, the key to the development of new antivirals is the identification of novel therapeutic targets [127]. In this context, NS1 presents itself as a promising target due to its multifunctional nature and central role in virus biology and infection mechanisms.…”

How influenza a causes ‘‘epidemics and pandemics’’ among the population: novel targets for anti-influenza molecules

“…16,17 Nafamostat, aprotinin, gabexate are examples of HA surface antigen inhibitors; Stachyflin, benzoquinones, BMY-27709 are also inhibitors of fusion and entry; zanamivir and oseltamivir are common examples of NA inhibitory drugs; amantadine and rimantadine are M2 ion channel blockers, although they are generally not recommended for treating influenza virus infections due to drug resistance concern; T-705, L-735, flutimide and their analogues are inhibitors of viral RNA polymerase and endonuclease. 18,19…”