Antiviral Chemotherapy: An Introduction and Reasons for the Slow Progress, Particularly towards Rational Design.- Design of Nucleoside Analogs as Potential Antiviral Agents.- Design of Anti-Viral Agents other than Nucleoside Analogues.- Antivirals for High Hazards Viruses.- Human Retroviruses and Anti-Viral Therapies.- Epstein-Barr Virus.- Molecular Targets for Selective Antiviral Chemotherapy.- Inhibition of S-Adenosylmethionine-Dependent Transmethylation as an Approach to the Development of Antiviral Agents.- Assay Systems: Testing of Antiviral Drugs in Cell Culture (in vitro).- Animal Models as Assay Systems for the Development of Antivirals.- Experimental Aspects of Antiviral Pharmacology.- Virus Drug Resistance.- Interferon as an Antiviral Agent.- Risk-Benefit Analysis in Drug Research.- Safety Assessment of Antiviral Drugs.- Antiviral Agents: A New Beginning.- Participants.
Erik De Clercq, M.D., PhD is currently President of the Rega Foundation, a member of the Belgian (Flemish) Royal Academy of Medicine and of the Academia Europaea, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is an active Emeritus Professor of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven), Belgium. He is honorary doctor of the Universities of Ghent, Belgium, Athens, Greece, Ferrara, Italy, Jinan (Shandong), China, Charles (Prague), Czech Republic, and Jihoceska (Bude?jovice), Czech Republic. For his pioneering efforts in antiviral research, Professor De Clercq received in 1996 the Aventis award from the American Society for Microbiology, and in 2000 the Maisin Prize for Biomedical Sciences from the Belgian National Science Foundation. In 2008 he was elected Inventor of the Year by the European Union. Together with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Prof. De Clercq received the Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research in 2010. He is the (co)inventor of a number of antiviral drugs, used for the treatment of HSV (valaciclovir, Valtrex , Zelitrex ), VZV (brivudin, Zostex , Brivirac , Zerpex ), CMV (cidofovir, Vistide ), HBV (adefovir dipivoxil, Hepsera ), and HIV infections (AIDS) (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, Viread ).