Anti‐DNA Virus Agents

Abstract

Although most of the drugs that are used to treat deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) virus infections have been on the market for more than 10 years, anti‐DNA virus drug discovery remains an active field of research. There are still DNA viruses that are important human pathogens for which no therapy is available (i.e. adenovirus), for which the available drugs show considerable toxicity (i.e. cytomegalovirus), or for which the current drug therapy is insufficient to eradicate the virus (i.e. hepatitis B virus). In this article, we have provided an overview of the anti‐DNA virus drugs that are presently on the market together with a description of the new compounds, all active against DNA viruses, covering the literature of the past 10 years. We have focused on the structure of newly discovered compounds, and the mechanism of action and clinical data, when available. Although the major efforts are still in the nucleotide antimetabolite field, the anti‐DNA virus field of research and development has shifted recently in the direction of the study of more common heterocyclic structures as protein inhibitors.