A REPORT FROM THE 26TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ANTIVIRAL RESEARCH (MAY 11-15, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, USA)

As described in the following report, numerous research programs reported during this year's International Conference on Antiviral Research (ICAR) in San Francisco resulted in novel agents with antiviral activity against a number of viral pathogens, including programs aimed at compounds active against specific pathogens as well as broad preclinical research that identified compounds with putative activity against many virus families. As an example of the latter, a research program was reported that identified compounds with activity against HIV-1 and -2, herpes virus, influenza virus and Coxsackie virus (Dejmek, M. et al., Abst 35), while studies with Griffithsin, a red algae-derived protein with potent, broad antiviral activity against hepatitis C virus, coronavirus and Japanese encephalitis virus, among others, showed it also inhibited HIV, although only when the tight dimer structure is respected (Xue, J. et al., Abst 104).