The book, Antiviral Drug Strategies, is currently the most complete compilation of accounts of antiviral drug development studies. This is volume 50 in the series, Methods and Principles in Medicinal Chemistry, edited by Mannhold, Kubinyi, and Folkers. The editor of the current volume is Erik De Clercq, a well-known co-developer of many antiviral compounds and an early investigator of drugs against the causative agent of AIDS, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Thomas W. Bell, University of Nevada, Reno, USA, writes in his book review that De Clercq provides a very good historical introduction to the era of antiviral drugs in Chapter 1 and concludes the volume with a personal account of the discovery of a specific HIV non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (rilpivirine) in Chapter 15.
In his opinion, although the book is not a comprehensive source of information on all antiviral drugs, it presents several detailed case studies on development of some commercial antiviral drugs and some good reviews of experimental findings on compounds inhibiting certain viruses or operating by certain general mechanisms.
Bell concludes that the book is currently the most complete compilation of case studies and reviews. The references appear up-to-date at the time of publication and there is a useful index at the back of the book. This volume would certainly be a useful addition to the libraries of academic chemists, biochemists, and microbiologists, as well as to those of pharmaceutical research groups.
Book Review: Antiviral Drug Strategies,
Thomas W. Bell,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 3749–3750.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201200213
Antiviral Drug Strategies
Edited by Erik De Clercq.
Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2011.
406 pp., hardcover,
EUR 139.00.—
ISBN 978-3527326969
