Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Government College University, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan.
Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Government College University, Lahore, 54000, Pakistan.
Microb Pathog. 2023 Jun;179:106088. doi: 10.1016/j.micpath.2023.106088. Epub 2023 Mar 31.
Significant efforts and initiatives were already made in the health care systems, however in the last few years; our world is facing emergences of viral infections which potentially leading to considerable challenges in terms of higher morbidity, mortality, increased and considerable financial loads on the affected populations. Over ten major epidemics or pandemics have been recorded in the twenty-first century, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic being one of them. Viruses being distinct obligate pathogens largely dependent on living beings are considered as one of the prominent causes of death globally. Although effective vaccines and antivirals have led to the eradication of imperative viral pathogens, the emergences of new viral infections as well as novel drug-resistant strains have necessitated the implementation of ingenious and efficient therapeutic approaches to treat viral outbreaks in the future. Nature being a constant source of tremendous therapeutical resources has inspired us to develop multi-target antiviral drugs, overcoming the challenges and limitations faced by pharmaceutical industry. Recent breakthroughs in the understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of viral reproduction have laid the groundwork for potential treatment approaches including antiviral gene therapy relying on the application of precisely engineered nucleic acids for disabling pathogen replication. The development of RNA interference and advancements in genome manipulating tools have proven to be especially significant in this regard. In this review, we discussed mode of actions and pathophysiological events associated with the viral infections; followed by distributions, and advancement made towards the detection strategies for timely diagnosis. In the later section, current approaches to cope up the viral pathogens and their key limitations have also been elaborated. Lastly, we also explored some novel and potential targets to treat such infections, where attentions were made on next generation gene editing technologies.
在医疗保健系统中已经做出了重大努力和举措，然而在过去的几年中；我们的世界正面临着病毒感染的出现，这可能会给发病率、死亡率、受影响人群的经济负担增加和相当大的挑战。在 21 世纪已经记录了超过 10 次重大传染病或大流行，正在发生的冠状病毒大流行就是其中之一。病毒作为主要依赖生物体的独特专性病原体，被认为是全球主要死亡原因之一。尽管有效的疫苗和抗病毒药物已经导致了强制性病毒病原体的根除，但新的病毒感染以及新型耐药株的出现，需要实施巧妙而有效的治疗方法，以应对未来的病毒爆发。大自然是巨大治疗资源的不断源泉，激发我们开发多靶点抗病毒药物，克服制药行业面临的挑战和限制。对病毒复制的细胞和分子机制的理解的最新突破为潜在的治疗方法奠定了基础，包括依赖于应用精确设计的核酸来使病原体复制失活的抗病毒基因治疗。RNA 干扰的发展和基因组操作工具的进步在这方面被证明是特别重要的。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了与病毒感染相关的作用机制和病理生理事件；随后讨论了检测策略的分布和进展，以便进行及时诊断。在后面的部分，还详细阐述了目前应对病毒病原体的方法及其主要局限性。最后，我们还探讨了一些治疗此类感染的新的潜在靶点，重点关注下一代基因编辑技术。
