CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The emergence of antiviral drug-resistant mutants is the most important issue in current antiviral therapy. An ideal therapeutic target to prevent drug-resistance development is represented by host factors that are crucial for the viral life cycle. Given that viruses are obligate parasites, several host factors that are crucial for viral replication also represent antiviral therapeutic targets, referred to as the ?cell-based approach?.Recent efforts have focused on finding and characterizing cellular metabolic inhibitors as broad-spectrum antivirals for targeting with minimum cytotoxicity. MPA is a non-nucleoside, non-competitive inhibitor of inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH). It is well known by its effects as immunosuppressive and against multiplication of several viruses; this inhibition was highly reversed by exogenous guanosine addition, indicating that antiviral activity is effectively associated with GTP depletion through IMPDH blockade. Other antiviral drug is Ribavirin (RIB) is an antiviral drug which inhibits the development of several viruses. However, RIB must be administered frequently in order to maintain the therapeutic effect due to its short life time in body. The concentration of RIB in the blood often exceeds the maximum tolerable level after administration, which causes serious side effects. Poor pharmacokinetic profiles and resistance are the main two drawbacks from which currently used antiviral agents suffer, thus make them excellent targets for research, especially in the presence of viral pandemics such as DENV, ZIKV, HIV, Hepatitis. Despite the high efficiency of the human immune system, viruses are ubiquitous and versatile organisms with the potential to cause serious illnesses that require aggressive pharmacological intervention, yet existing medicines are by and large inefficient at combatting viruses, making them a target for aggressive exploration to accelerate the development of new antiviral agents.As it is known nanocarriers can provide key advantages for the in vivo delivery of drugs or molecules with therapeutic effects, such as nucleic acids and proteins, improving their efficiency and reducing potential side and toxic effects. Biodegradable and biocompatible nanoparticles (NPs) offer the ability to protect the therapeutic molecule from early degradation (i.e. before reaching the target organ or tissue), to control the release, to bypass the biological barriers and to selectively reach the action site.