title: Future prospects for the treatment of rapidly evolving viral pathogens: insights from evolutionary biology.
abstract: The evolutionary dynamics of viruses must be taken into consideration in designing preventive and therapeutic treatments. Here we review mechanisms by which viruses adapt in response to antiviral interventions. We propose combination therapy and multiepitopic vaccines as adequate to circumvent virus adaptability. An alternative design, termed lethal mutagenesis or virus entry into error catastrophe is presented. It exploits the high error rates inherent in RNA virus replication, to provoke virus extinction through excess of mutations.
authors.affiliation: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CSIC-UAM), Madrid, Spain. edomingo@cbm.uam.es
authors.forename: Esteban
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Domingo
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grande-Pérez
authors.forename: Verónica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Martín
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D005075:Biological Evolution; D009154:Mutation; D014780:Viruses / Q000235:genetics*