Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
5.4
3.9
Journals
JCM
Special Issues
Virus Infection and Antiviral Drugs
share announcement

Virus Infection and Antiviral Drugs

A special issue of Journal of Clinical Medicine (ISSN 2077-0383). This special issue belongs to the section "Infectious Diseases".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2021) | Viewed by 11854

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Kaio Kitazato

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Clinical Research Pharmacy, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan
Interests: immunology of infectious diseases; cellular biology; viral infection; vaccination; molecular virology; virus diseases; viral immunology; vaccine development; antivirals; infectious immunology; antiviral activity; antiviral immunity; virus–host interactions; gut microbiome

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 caused by a highly transmissible and pathogenic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has infected more than 50 million people within 10 months worldwide. Currently, there are only a few licensed but not specific effective antiviral drugs available for the treatment for COVID-19, urging the development of new antiviral drugs and therapeutic strategies.

Most of the highly pathogenic and emerging viruses are RNA viruses, which belong to a variety of virus families, and each have a particular replication strategy. In addition, these viruses often have the ability to mutate rapidly because of their low-fidelity replication process. To avoid the selection of resistant strains, the development of antiviral drugs, new drugs allowing combination therapy to increase the efficiency and enlarge the repertoire of therapeutics and diversity of druggable viral targets are clearly needed. The control of the current outbreak will strongly depend on the discovery of an antiviral drug combination both to treat severe disease and to block the spread of infection. 

The Special Issue seeks to provide a premier international platform for a wide range of professions, including scholars, researchers, academics, clinicians, and industry people, with the aim of including recent advances in antivirals against RNA viruses and providing an update on therapeutic strategies; discussing and presenting various types of manuscripts, including the most recent advances in antiviral drugs, promising targets for antiviral drug development, antiviral immunity, the diversity of druggable viral targets focused on the conserved domains of viral proteins, and/or the host factors required for virus infection and replication; and developing innovative and possible therapeutic strategies and repurposing drugs on the basis of promising in vitro and therapeutic results.

In this Issue, we aimed at comprehensively discussing how this knowledge will rationally orientate antiviral drug discovery to improve therapeutic intervention and reduce safety risks.

Prof. Dr. Kaio Kitazato
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Clinical Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Viral diseases
  • Antiviral drugs
  • Antiviral immunity
  • Virus–host interactions
  • Antiviral molecular mechanisms
  • Gut microbiome
  • Strategic therapeutic intervention.

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

6 pages, 757 KiB  
Article
Antibody Response after BNT162b2 Vaccination in Healthcare Workers Previously Exposed and Not Exposed to SARS-CoV-2
by Marcello Salvaggio, Federica Fusina, Filippo Albani, Maurizio Salvaggio, Rasula Beschi, Emanuela Ferrari, Alberto Costa, Laura Agnoletti, Emanuela Facchi and Giuseppe Natalini
J. Clin. Med. 2021, 10(18), 4204; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10184204 - 17 Sep 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2068
Abstract
The Pfizer/BioNtech Comirnaty vaccine (BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19) against SARS-CoV-2 is currently in use in Italy. Antibodies to evaluate SARS-CoV-2 infection prior to administration are not routinely tested; therefore, two doses may be administered to asymptomatic previously exposed subjects. The aim of this study [...] Read more.
The Pfizer/BioNtech Comirnaty vaccine (BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19) against SARS-CoV-2 is currently in use in Italy. Antibodies to evaluate SARS-CoV-2 infection prior to administration are not routinely tested; therefore, two doses may be administered to asymptomatic previously exposed subjects. The aim of this study is to assess if any difference in antibody concentration between subjects exposed and not exposed to SARS-CoV-2 prior to BNT162b2 was present after the first dose and after the second dose of vaccine. Data were retrospectively collected from the clinical documentation of 337 healthcare workers who underwent SARS-CoV-2 testing before and after BNT162b2. Total anti RBD (receptor-binding domain) antibodies against SARS-CoV-2′s spike protein were measured before and 21 days after the first dose, and 12 days after the second dose of BNT162b2. Twenty-one days after the first dose, there was a statistically significant difference in antibody concentration between the two groups, which was also maintained twelve days after the second dose. In conclusion, antibody response after receiving BNT162b2 is greater in subjects who have been previously exposed to SARS-CoV-2 than in subjects who have not been previously exposed to the virus, both after 21 days after the first dose and after 12 days from the second dose. Antibody levels, 21 days after the first dose, reached a titer considered positive by the test manufacturer in the majority of subjects who have been previously infected with SARS-CoV-2. Evaluating previous infection prior to vaccination in order to give the least effective number of doses should be considered. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Virus Infection and Antiviral Drugs)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

10 pages, 437 KiB  
Article
Impact of Corticosteroid Administration within 7 Days of the Hospitalization for Influenza Pneumonia with Respiratory Failure: A Propensity Score Analysis Using a Nationwide Administrative Database
by Daisuke Okuno, Takashi Kido, Keiji Muramatsu, Kei Tokutsu, Sakiko Moriyama, Takuto Miyamura, Atsuko Hara, Hiroshi Ishimoto, Hiroyuki Yamaguchi, Taiga Miyazaki, Noriho Sakamoto, Yasushi Obase, Yuji Ishimatsu, Yoshihisa Fujino, Kazuhiro Yatera, Shinya Matsuda and Hiroshi Mukae
J. Clin. Med. 2021, 10(3), 494; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10030494 - 31 Jan 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2757
Abstract
Influenza pneumonia, which causes acute respiratory distress syndrome and multiple organ failure, has no established management protocol. Recently, corticosteroid therapy was used to treat coronavirus disease 2019 with respiratory failure; however, its effectiveness as a treatment for influenza pneumonia remains controversial. To investigate [...] Read more.
Influenza pneumonia, which causes acute respiratory distress syndrome and multiple organ failure, has no established management protocol. Recently, corticosteroid therapy was used to treat coronavirus disease 2019 with respiratory failure; however, its effectiveness as a treatment for influenza pneumonia remains controversial. To investigate the impact of corticosteroid therapy for the early phase of severe influenza pneumonia, we compared influenza pneumonia patients with respiratory failure treated with or without corticosteroids within 7 days after hospital admission using a Japanese nationwide administrative database. The primary endpoint was the mortality rate. The secondary endpoints were duration of intensive-care unit management, invasive mechanical ventilation, and hospital stay. The inverse probability weighting method with estimated propensity scores was used to minimize the data collection bias. We included 3519 patients with influenza pneumonia with respiratory failure. Of these, 875 were treated with corticosteroids. There was no significant difference between the groups regarding 30-day and 90-day mortality, duration of intensive-care unit management, invasive mechanical ventilation, and hospital stay. However, the in-hospital mortality rate was higher in the corticosteroid group. The use of systematic corticosteroid therapy in patients with influenza pneumonia was associated with a higher in-hospital mortality rate. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Virus Infection and Antiviral Drugs)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

16 pages, 293 KiB  
Review
Favipiravir in Therapy of Viral Infections
by Ryta Łagocka, Violetta Dziedziejko, Patrycja Kłos and Andrzej Pawlik
J. Clin. Med. 2021, 10(2), 273; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10020273 - 13 Jan 2021
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 6227
Abstract
Favipiravir (FPV) is a novel antiviral drug acting as a competitive inhibitor of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), preventing viral transcription and replication. FPV was approved in Japan in 2014 for therapy of influenza unresponsive to standard antiviral therapies. FPV was also used in [...] Read more.
Favipiravir (FPV) is a novel antiviral drug acting as a competitive inhibitor of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), preventing viral transcription and replication. FPV was approved in Japan in 2014 for therapy of influenza unresponsive to standard antiviral therapies. FPV was also used in the therapy of Ebola virus disease (EVD) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms of action, pharmacokinetic parameters, toxicity, and adverse effects of FPV, as well as clinical studies evaluating the use of FPV in the therapy of influenza virus (IV) infection, EVD, and SARS-CoV-2 infection, along with its effectiveness in treating other human RNA infections. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Virus Infection and Antiviral Drugs)
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop