From a November 1990 symposium in Philadelphia, sponsored by the local branch of the American Society for Microbiology, 21 papers discuss the state of antiviral agents. Not content with reviewing the massive research and few clinical benefits to date, the authors speculate on what advances are immin
From a November 1990 symposium in Philadelphia, sponsored by the local branch of the American Society for Microbiology, 21 papers discuss the state of...
THE ERA OF ANTIVIRALS Introduction Although there are more than one hundred medically useful antibiotics and fungicides, there are only seven compounds licensed for use as antiviral agents, in the USA. Some of these (acyclovir and ganciclovir) are actually derivatives of each other, making the number of new discoveries even smaller. Moreover, most of these agents are of only limited therapeutic value and have substantial toxicity. It has been more than 100 years ago since Pasteur studied rabies virus (2) and Rous (4) showed that a small filterable agent (not bacteria) caused disease (sarcoma)...
THE ERA OF ANTIVIRALS Introduction Although there are more than one hundred medically useful antibiotics and fungicides, there are only seven compound...
