Ophthalmic antiviral chemotherapy: an overview.
Antiviral drug development has been slow due to many factors. One such factor is the difficulty to block the viral replication in the cell without adversely affecting the host cell metabolic activity. Most of the antiviral compounds are analogs of purines and pyramidines. Currently available antiviral drugs mainly inhibit viral nucleic acid synthesis, hence act only on actively replicating viruses. This article presents an overview of some of the commonly used antiviral agents in clinical ophthalmology.
Athmanathan
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Devchand Nagardas Jhaveri Microbiology Centre, L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India. sreedhar@lvpeye.stph.net
Garg
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P
Rao
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GN
D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004261:DNA Replication / Q000187:drug effects; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000187:drug effects; D015828:Eye Infections, Viral / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D018406:Virus Physiological Phenomena; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000187:drug effects
D000998:Antiviral Agents; D004279:DNA, Viral