Biochemical prevention and treatment of viral infections – A new paradigm in medicine for infectious diseases

Hervé Le Calvez¹ , Mang Yu² and Fang Fang²

¹Abgent, Inc. 6310 Nancy Ridge Drive, Suite 106, San Diego, CA 92121 USA

²NexBio, Inc. 6330 Nancy Ridge Drive, Suite 105, San Diego, CA 92121 USA

author email corresponding author email

Virology Journal 2004, 1:12doi:10.1186/1743-422X-1-12


Published:	23 November 2004

Abstract

For two centuries, vaccination has been the dominating approach to develop prophylaxis against viral infections through immunological prevention. However, vaccines are not always possible to make, are ineffective for many viral infections, and also carry certain risk for a small, yet significant portion of the population. In the recent years, FDA's approval and subsequent market acceptance of Synagis, a monoclonal antibody indicated for prevention and treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has heralded a new era for viral infection prevention and treatment. This emerging paradigm, herein designated "Biochemical Prevention and Treatment", currently involves two aspects: (1) preventing viral entry via passive transfer of specific protein-based anti-viral molecules or host cell receptor blockers; (2) inhibiting viral amplification by targeting the viral mRNA with anti-sense DNA, ribozyme, or RNA interference (RNAi). This article summarizes the current status of this field.