Journal of Antivirals & Antiretrovirals
Open Access

Abstract

Influenza Drugs: Current Standards and Novel Alternatives

Tracee Wee and Håvard Jenssen

Epidemics caused by different strains of influenza A virus are constantly plaguing the world, traditionally causing severe infections and mortality in infants and the elderly, leaving approximately 300,000-500,000 people dead annually. Despite the fact that there are both a relatively successful annual vaccine program and a handful of active antiviral drugs on the market, the continually high annual mortality rate due to influenza infections demonstrates the pressing need for new antiviral drugs targeting influenza infections. Consequently this field of research has blossomed considerably over the past decade, and several novel strategies of intervention have been investigated for different microbial invasions, e.g. antibodies, biologicals (i.e. proteins and peptides) and small molecule agonists and antagonists (for review see Hamill et al., 2008; Kanzler et al., 2007; Lai and Gallo, 2008; O'Neill, 2006; Romagne, 2007; Wales et al., 2007). Another very promising class of drugs are the so-called host defence peptides and synthetic derivative thereof. Therapeutic strategies for influenza treatment, in addition to the development and the clinical status of novel potential influenza drugs will be discussed in brief in this review.