Antiviral Chemotherapy and Vaccines

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Vaccines have, to date, occupied the central position in attempts to control virus infections. Vaccines are relatively cheap and safe and the immunity is often lifelong. However, some viruses, for some reasons, are not fully amenable to this approach, such as influenza, retroviruses, herpesviruses, the slow viruses, rhinoviruses and arboviruses. Obstacles to the use of vaccines include (1) multiplicity of serotypes e.g.. rhinoviruses, togaviruses (2) antigenic change e.g.. influenza, retroviruses and (3) Latent infections. Only relatively recently have notable successes on a large scale been achieved with antiviral drugs such as acyclovir and AZT, in situations where no vaccine is available. However. acyclovir and AZT do not approach penicillin in their spectra of activity or degree of inhibition. They are more analogous to some of the first antibacterial agents such as salvarsan. No antiviral compound tested has been able to inhibit completely the replication of any virus and a proportion of viral particles always seems to be able to circumvent the drug-induced blockade.  

1. The Chemistry of Antiviral Compound
2. Points of action of antiviral molecules

Contents reproduced with permission from Wong's Virology