Famciclovir and valaciclovir were approved for use in the treatment of herpes zoster despite controversy over antiviral therapy in zoster due to high costs and uncertain benefits. To explore these issues, a Markov decision model was developed, and the incremental cost effectiveness of antiviral treatment for herpes zoster was estimated using these agents compared with no antiviral therapy. A th...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a positive single-stranded RNA virus of enormous global health importance, with direct-acting antiviral therapies replacing an immunostimulatory interferon-based regimen. The dynamics of HCV positive and negative-strand viral RNAs (vRNAs) under antiviral perturbations have not been studied at the single-cell level, leaving a gap in our understanding of antiviral kinet...

A safe, potent and broad-spectrum antiviral is urgently needed to combat emerging respiratory viruses. In light of the broad antiviral activity of β-defensins, we tested the antiviral activity of 11 peptides derived from mouse β-defensin-4 and found that a short peptide, P9, exhibited potent and broad-spectrum antiviral effects against multiple respiratory viruses in vitro and in vivo, includin...

The recent great advances in medical treatment and scientific technology include the many antiviral agents that have been developed and are used for treatment of infectious diseases, but such advances have also provoked the appearance of resistant virus strains. Therefore, the development of new antiviral agents with diverse kinds of antiviral actions is required. The search for new antiviral a...

The antiviral activity profile of the uterus and fetal membranes from bovine placenta, induced by the Newcastle disease virus (NDV) throughout gestation, was investigated. Explants of the endometrium and caruncles were collected from the uterus, and amniochorion, allantochorion and cotyledons, from fetal placenta. Tissue cultures were induced with ~6.0 hemagglutinating units (HU) of NDV. Supern...

Viral pathogens are a major threat to rice production worldwide. Although RNA interference (RNAi) is known to mediate antiviral immunity in plant and animal models, the mechanism of antiviral RNAi in rice and other economically important crops is poorly understood. Here, we report that rice resistance to evolutionarily diverse viruses requires Argonaute18 (AGO18). Genetic studies reveal that th...

Antiviral immunity in insects and plants is mediated by the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway in which viral long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is processed into small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) by Dicer enzymes. Although this pathway is evolutionarily conserved, its involvement in antiviral defense in mammals is the subject of debate. In vertebrates, recognition of viral RNA induces a sophisticated...

BACKGROUND The 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic was mild by historical standards, but was more severe in isolated Canadian Indigenous communities. Oseltamivir was used aggressively for outbreak control in an isolated northern Ontario First Nations community. We used mathematical modeling to quantify the impact of antiviral therapy on the course of this outbreak. METHODS We used both a Richard...

The emergence of antiviral-resistant cytomegalovirus (CMV) strains is a continuing clinical problem, with increased numbers of immunocompromised patients given longer-duration antiviral prophylaxis. Two previously unrecognized CMV DNA polymerase mutations (N408K and A834P) identified separately and together in at-risk lung and kidney transplant recipients and a third mutation (L737M) identified...