Abstract
Global outbreaks of diseases caused by zoonotic viruses have steadily increased in recent years. Emerging zoonotic viruses are generally phylogenetically diverse, are unpredictable and are known to cause diseases with high case fatality rates in humans and are hard to protect against due to lack of approved antiviral drugs. The aim of this review is to discuss how advances in genomics, rational drug design and innate immune signaling can contribute to the design of nucleic acid-based drugs to combat these emerging threats. Specifically, the antiviral activity of siRNAs, antisense oligonucleotides is mediated by sequence-specific gene silencing, and broad-spectrum innate and antiviral immune responses can be elicited by toll-like receptor agonists. This review will summarize their current state of development, safety and efficacy, and provide perspectives on future development.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to acknowledge L Nagata for his review of this manuscript.
Financial and competing interest disclosure
The author's research is supported financially by the Department of National Defence under the Government of Canada. The author has no other relevant affiliation or financial involvement with any organization or entity with financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.