Question

Propose ideas for the development of drugs that could stop viral replication cycles

Answer 1

Despite major differences in structure to the host, viruses utilize their host cells' enzymes and ribosomes to metabolize and replicate. Therefore, drugs that are effective against viral replication are likely to be toxic to the host as well. Hence, the strategy is to look for process that is unique that happens in virus infected cells but not in uninfected cells. Additionally, finding an enzyme that viruses decoded and that catalyze the process and find ideas for inhibiting replication of the virus.

Answer 2

One proposal is the use of drugs that target the reverse transcriptase that generates DNA from the RNA (the genetic material of the virus) -before it becomes integrated into host DNA. Another is by inhibiting this integration of the viral DNA into the host DNA by using integrase inhibitors that