18, 19 - Antiviral Flashcards
Do viruses contain DNA and RNA?
Contain DNA or RNA surrounded by uncomplicated protein coat (serves as cell membrane)
Do viruses have a lipid bilayer?
More complex viruses do
Can viruses replicate on their own?
- No, they require living cells to do so
- Exist at interface of living and non-living organisms
Do viruses conduct their own metabolic processes?
No, dependent on host cell
What happens to viruses during replication in host cells?
Lose organized structure
What are the shapes of viruses?
- Helical
- Polyhedral
- Spherical
What happens when DNA virus enters a host cell?
- Enters nucleus of host cell, where viral DNA is transcribed into mRNA by host cell RNA polymerase
- mRNA is translated into virus-specific proteins that facilitate assembly, maturation, and release of newly formed virus into surroundings
What is the difference between DNA and RNA viruses?
- DNA viruses rely on host cell to synthesize mRNA
- RNA viruses rely on enzymes in the virus itself to synthesize mRNA
What features are used to characterize viruses?
- Nucleic acid content (DNA or RNA)
- Viral morphology (helical, icosahedral)
- Site of replication in cell (cytoplasm or nucleus)
- Coating (enveloped or non-enveloped)
- Serological typing (antigenic signatures)
- Cell types infected (B or T lymphocytes, monocytes)
Estimated that viruses cause __% of infectious diseases in developing countries
60%
Why is development of antivirals difficult?
- Viruses won’t grow in simple culture media
- Need mammalian-derived cell cultures, making drug screening techniques very difficult
- Viruses have much simpler biochemistry than bacteria, meaning fewer potential drug targets
- Viral infections don’t appear until well established, making tx more difficult
What is an antiviral?
Chemical compound that may inhibit various biochemical targets or arrest biochemical events
What are the 7 stages of viral infection?
- Absorption (attachment to specific receptors)
- Penetration (entry of virus into cell)
- Uncoating (release of viral nucleic acid from coat)
- Transcription (production of viral mRNA)
- Translation (synthesis of viral proteins and nucleic acids, using host cell processes)
- Assembly (of viral particles)
- Release (of virus from cell by budding and rupture)
What is chemoprophylaxis?
Administration of medication for prevention of disease or infection
Which drugs are adamantanamines? What is their mechanism?
- Amantadine and rimantadine
- Interfere w/ penetration of host cells by viruses and block early stage replication (uncoating); also affect a later step involved in viral assembly
What are adamantanamines used for?
Prevention and treatment of influenza type A
What are neuraminidase inhibitors?
- Enzymes that function in early activation steps of the virus
- Important in enhancing penetration of viruses into host cells
Which drugs are neuraminidase inhibitors? What does each drug do?
- Zanamivir – inhibits neuraminidase by binding to active site of sialic acid-sugar bond cleavage (guanidino group key for competitive inhibition)
- Oseltamivir – orally active competitive inhibitor (prodrug, ethyl ester allows for oral bioavailability; non-polar 3-pentyl group key for max binding)
What is the function of neuraminidase?
- Found on surface of virus
- Cleaves sialic acid containing receptor
- Neuraminidase specifically catalyzes breakdown of glycosides containing neuraminic acid
- Allows for new virions to be released
What are interferons?
- Extremely potent cytokines that possess antiviral, immunomodulating, and anti-proliferative actions
- Synthesized by host cells in response to various inducers, and elicit anti-viral activity
What happens when interferons bind to cellular receptors?
Induce synthesis of a cascade of antiviral proteins
What do interferons inhibit to have anti-viral effects?
- Viral penetration or uncoating
- mRNA synthesis
- Translation of viral proteins
- Viral assembly and release
Interferons predominantly inhibit ____ synthesis
Protein
Which interferons are used clinically? For what purposes?
- Interferon alpha used in recombinant form
- Interferon beta used for tx of MS
Which drugs are nucleoside antimetabolites?
Acyclovir and valacyclovir
What dosage forms is acyclovir available as? What is it used for?
- Oral, injection, and ointment
- Used for acute tx of herpes simplex (cold sores) and herpex zoster (chicken pox/shingles); and tx of initial episodes of herpes genitalis
- Reduces viral shedding in shingles; also used for herpes simplex encephalitis
- Doesn’t cure but decreases severity and length of outbreak
What is the difference between valacyclovir and acyclovir?
Valacyclovir is a pro-drug of acyclovir
What is the MOA of acyclovir?
- Conversion to active monophosphate by viral thymidine kinase occurs faster by herpes virus infected cells than normal cells
- Competitive inhibitor of viral DNA polymerase, and is incorporated into viral DNA during DNA synthesis; due to lack of “sugar” it terminates DNA elongation
- Preferential uptake in herpes-infected cells
What is adefovir dipivoxil used for? What is its MOA?
- Tx of chronic hepatitis B
- Competitive inhibitor for hepatitis B virus reverse transcriptase, acting as a chain terminator
- Adefovir dipivoxil = prodrug that is converted into adefovir
Which drugs are nucleoside antimetabolites? What is their general function?
- Ganciclovir and penciclovir
- Cidofovir
- Cytarabine and idoxuridine
- Ribavirin
- Trifluorothymidine
- Vidarabine
- Sofosbuvir
- Inhibit viral replication
Nucleoside antimetabolites are analogs of _____ and the modification ______
- Analogs of acyclovir
- Modification maintains activity against HSV, but increases activity against cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections (ganciclovir)
Where are ganciclovir and penciclovir phosphorylated? What happens after this?
- Ganciclovir = phosphorlyated inside host cell; ganciclovir triphosphate incorporated into DNA and stops elongation
- Penciclovir = phosphorlyated by viral thymidine kinase and competitively inhibits DNA elongation
What is cidofovir? What is its active form? What does it do?
- Acyclic pyrimidine nucleotide analog of cytosine
- Metabolized in vivo to active diphosphate
- Inhibits viral replication via DNA synthesis interference
What are cytarabine and idoxuridine? What are their active forms? What do they do?
- Synthetic pyrimidine analogs of cytidine and uridine respectively
- Metabolically converted into active triphosphates
- Incorporated into DNA during replication
- Cytarabine blocks utilization of deoxycytidine
- Idoxuribine replaces thymidine => faulty viral proteins
What is ribavirin? What is its active form? What does it do?
- Guanosine analog w/ broad spectrum antiviral activity (both DNA and RNA)
- Phosphorylated by adenosine kinase
- Inhibits viral RNA polymerase
What is trifluorothymidine? What is its active form? What does it do?
- Fluorinated analog of thymidine
- Triphosphate is incorporated into viral DNA in place of thymidine
- Causes faulty viral mRNA proteins (HSV-1)
What is vidarabine? What is its active form? What does it do?
- Adenosine nucleoside analog
- Triphosphate is active form
- Triphosphate interferes w/ viral nucleic acid replication due to arabinose sugar
What is sofosbuvir? What is it used for?
- Uridine nucleotide analog
- Used in combination w/ other drugs for tx of hepatitis C virus infection