Antiviral therapeutic approaches for human rhinovirus infections

Casanova, Victor; Sousa, Filipa H; Stevens, Craig; Barlow, Peter G

A number of other novel capsid binding compounds have shown effective antiviral activity against rhinovirus, and another capsid binding protein that has generated intense interest is pirodavir. A study of this compound showed showed antiviral activity against RV-14 and against RV-87 [33, 34] . A comprehensive assessment was undertaken by Brown et al. (2005) , who established that pirodavir had substantial antiviral activity against a range of 15 different serotypes of RV [45] . Interestingly, RV-45 appeared to be completely resistant to this compound. However, in the same study, a series of pyridazinylpiperidinyl-based compounds were synthesized and one derivative was also found to be particularly effective against a number of the RV serotypes [45] . In a similar context, an analog of pirodavir, termed BTA798 has also shown effective activity against several RV serotypes and has been assessed in Phase II clinical trials [34, 46] . Another capsid binding drug, vapendavir, which has been shown to inhibit enterovirus-71, has very recently also been utilized in Phase II clinical trials, but at the time of writing, the efficacy of this treatment is as yet unclear.