The Discovery and Development of Daclatasvir: An Inhibitor of the Hepatitis C Virus NS5A Replication Complex

A fruitful century for the scalable synthesis and reactions of biphenyl derivatives: applications and biological aspects

This review provides recent developments in the current status and latest synthetic methodologies of biphenyl derivatives. Furthermore, this review investigates detailed discussions of several metalated chemical reactions related to biphenyl scaffolds such as Wurtz-Fittig, Ullmann, Bennett-Turner, Negishi, Kumada, Stille, Suzuki-Miyaura, Friedel-Crafts, cyanation, amination, and various electrophilic substitution reactions supported by their mechanistic pathways. Furthermore, the preconditions required for the existence of axial chirality in biaryl compounds are discussed. Furthermore, atropisomerism as a type of axial chirality in biphenyl molecules is discussed. Additionally, this review covers a wide range of biological and medicinal applications of the synthesized compounds involving patented approaches in the last decade corresponding to investigating the crucial role of the biphenyl structures in APIs.

Targeting the Virus Capsid as a Tool to Fight RNA Viruses

Several strategies have been developed to fight viral infections, not only in humans but also in animals and plants. Some of them are based on the development of efficient vaccines, to target the virus by developed antibodies, others focus on finding antiviral compounds with activities that inhibit selected virus replication steps. Currently, there is an increasing number of antiviral drugs on the market; however, some have unpleasant side effects, are toxic to cells, or the viruses quickly develop resistance to them. As the current situation shows, the combination of multiple antiviral strategies or the combination of the use of various compounds within one strategy is very important. The most desirable are combinations of drugs that inhibit different steps in the virus life cycle. This is an important issue especially for RNA viruses, which replicate their genomes using error-prone RNA polymerases and rapidly develop mutants resistant to applied antiviral compounds. Here, we focus on compounds targeting viral structural capsid proteins, thereby inhibiting virus assembly or disassembly, virus binding to cellular receptors, or acting by inhibiting other virus replication mechanisms. This review is an update of existing papers on a similar topic, by focusing on the most recent advances in the rapidly evolving research of compounds targeting capsid proteins of RNA viruses.

Modeling hepatitis C virus kinetics during liver transplantation reveals the role of the liver in virus clearance

While the liver, specifically hepatocytes, are widely accepted as the main source of hepatitis C virus (HCV) production, the role of the liver/hepatocytes in clearance of circulating HCV remains unknown. Frequent HCV kinetic data were recorded and mathematically modeled from five liver transplant patients throughout the anhepatic (absence of liver) phase and for 4 hr post-reperfusion. During the anhepatic phase, HCV remained at pre-anhepatic levels (n = 3) or declined (n = 2) with t_1/2~1 hr. Immediately post-reperfusion, virus declined in a biphasic manner in four patients consisting of a rapid decline (t_1/2 = 5 min) followed by a slower decline (t_1/2 = 67 min). Consistent with the majority of patients in the anhepatic phase, when we monitored HCV clearance at 37°C from culture medium in the absence/presence of chronically infected hepatoma cells that were inhibited from secreting HCV, the HCV t_1/2 in cell culture was longer in the absence of chronically HCV-infected cells. The results suggest that the liver plays a major role in the clearance of circulating HCV and that hepatocytes may be involved.

Carbamate group as structural motif in drugs: a review of carbamate derivatives used as therapeutic agents

Due to their very good chemical and proteolytic stability, ability to penetrate cell membranes, and resemblance to a peptide bond, carbamate derivatives have received much attention in recent years and got an important role in modern drug discovery and medicinal chemistry. Today, carbamates make structural and/or functional part of many drugs and prodrugs approved and marketed for the treatment of various diseases such as cancer, epilepsy, hepatitis C, HIV infection, and Alzheimer's disease. In drugs they can play a role in drug-target interaction or improve the biological activity of parent molecules. In prodrugs they are mainly used to delay first-pass metabolism and enhance the bioavailability and effectiveness of compounds. This brief review takes a look at the properties and use of carbamates in various fields of medicine and provides quick insights into the mechanisms of action for some of them.