Antiviral drugs have been used to treat illnesses and diseases since the early 20th century, when manufactured drugs gained popularity over natural or homeopathic remedies. Today, antiviral drugs are used as treatment for infection.
Uses
Antivirals are used against viruses, which can only reproduce inside a host cell. There are thousands of known viruses, and they are found in every aspect of our environment. Today, antivirals are commonly prescribed for use in fighting and treating HIV, herpes simplex, measles and mumps, as well as various influenza strains.
How Antivirals Work
Most antivirus drugs are designed to work in one of two ways. The first is to inhibit replication of the virus. This is achieved by an antiviral binding to receptors in the virus, thereby damaging that cell's ability to multiply. To replicate, the virus must contain a certain protein, and interruption of this cycle will destroy that ability. The second way is for an antiviral to pretend to be or mimic this protein, called a virus attachment protein, which disrupts the replication process.
Classes
Antivirals belong to a class of drug called antimicrobials, which include antifungals and antiparasitics. Antivirals offered in vaccinations are commonly used to prevent or treat flu, hepatitis B and C as well as pneumonia and the newly coined swine flu. Classes of antivirals also include inhibitors and interferons.
Treatments
Antivirals are used to treat illnesses such as flu and pneumonia as well as chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and depression. Antivirals work in several ways, including their ability to change virus cell structures, block enzyme activity that is essential for replication, blocking or otherwise interrupting replication information during a "translation process" and can also prevent a virus from penetrating a host cell. Research continues to seek alternate and more effective antivirals that may someday be used to treat Alzheimer's and other degenerative brain and nervous system disease processes. Development of such antivirals for non-viral diseases is based on the ability of an antiviral to interrupt or disrupt replication of damaged or diseased cells.
Common Antiviral Drugs
The most commonly used antiviral drugs used today include acyclovir, used to treat herpes simplex viruses, and zidovudine (Retrovir, AZT), ddI (Didanosine) and lamivudine (Epivir, 3TC) , which are nucleo-side analog reverse transcriptase inhibitors used to treat HIV. An antiviral called ribavirin (Rebetol, Copegus) is used to treat measles and mumps, while interferons are used to treat hepatitis B and C. The most common antivirus drugs used to treat A and B strains of influenza include oseltamivir phosphate (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza).
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