Broad-spectrum antiviral drug
Broad-spectrum antiviral drugs are a class of antiviral drugs, which target and inhibit the replication and development of a broad range of viral pathogens. BSAs work by inhibiting viral proteins or by targeting host cell proteins and processes exploited by the virus during infection.
Many BSAs are found showing efficacy against a given virus outside their original indication, showing antiviral activity against other viruses than originally investigated or outside their original therapeutic indications, for example, antibacterials, like azithromycin, antihelminthics, like niclosamide, and antiprotozoals, like emetine. This makes BSAs potential candidates for drug repurposing. Repurposing of BSAs will allow for quicker, cheaper and more efficient development of antivirals than de novo drug development.
BSAs are potential candidates for treatment of medically important and emerging viruses, such as influenzas, HIV, filoviruses, such as ebola and marburg viruses, and the coronaviruses, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and more recently SARS-CoV-2. Efforts in drug repurposing for SARS-CoV-2 is currently underway.List of currently known broad-spectrum antivirals
There are currently 120 known BSA candidates in varying stages of development, effective against 78 human viruses:
