| abstract |
The invention concerns agents for the treatment of acute and chronic infections with human and animal pathogenic viruses which assemble along the cell membrane and are released through budding on the surface of the cell. Hereunto count especially causative agents of infectious diseases such as AIDS, hepatitis, hemorrhagic fever, SARS, smallpox, measles, polio or the flu. The subjects of the invention are agents that contain inhibitors of the protein folding as active components. Hereunto count inhibitors of cellular folding enzymes (the enzymatic chaperones) as well as substances that disturb the folding of proteins through chemical chaperones. The following substance classes and their derivates belong thereunto: Geldanamycin, Deoxyspergualin, 4-PBA or Herbimycin A. Due to these agents the highly organised processes of the assembly and the proteolytical maturation of virus structure proteins is disturbed. As a result the release and production of infectious decendent viruses is prevented. |