Perspectives and opportunities for novel antiviral treatments targeting virus fitness

Abstract

Increasing data indicate that reduction of virus fitness may be beneficial for the host in persistent human infections caused by RNA viruses, and that virus fitness can be targeted in clinical practice. Analysis of virus fitness determinants in rapidly evolving RNA viruses has revealed that virus extinction may be obtained in vitro by forcing virus populations through a lethal mutagenesis process, thus abolishing virus replication by violation of the error threshold. It will be important in the future to evaluate the use of novel compounds designed specifically to modulate virus fitness in vivo, and to optimise diagnostic virology methods to enable a reliable large-scale evaluation of this approach. © 2008 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.