Emerging antiviral therapies and drugs for the treatment of influenza

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Both vaccines and antiviral drugs represent the mainstay for preventing and treating influenza. However, approved M2 ion channel inhibitors, neuraminidase inhibitors, polymerase inhibitors, and various vaccines cannot meet therapeutic needs because of viral resistance. Thus, the discovery of new targets for the virus or host and the development of more effective inhibitors are essential to protect humans from the influenza virus.

Areas covered

This review summarizes the latest progress in vaccines and antiviral drug research to prevent and treat influenza, providing the foothold for developing novel antiviral inhibitors.

Expert opinion

Vaccines embody the most effective approach to preventing influenza virus infection, and recombinant protein vaccines show promising prospects in developing next-generation vaccines. Compounds targeting the viral components of RNA polymerase, hemagglutinin and nucleoprotein, and the modification of trusted neuraminidase inhibitors are future research directions for anti-influenza virus drugs. In addition, some host factors affect the replication of virus in vivo, which can be used to develop antiviral drugs.

KEYWORDS:

• Influenza virus
• anti-viral drugs
• treatment
• clinical research

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Major scientific and technological projects of Guangdong Province (2019B020202002) and the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ZZ13-035-02, 2019XZZX-LG04) to S Liu.