Table 6.8.

Antiviral Drugs

Drug	Viruses	Chemical Type	Target
Vidarabine	Herpesviruses	Nucleoside analogue	Virus polymerase
Acyclovir	Herpes simplex (HSV)	Nucleoside analogue	Virus polymerase
Gancyclovir	Cytomegalovirus (CMV)	Nucleoside analogue	Virus polymerase (requires virus UL98 kinase for activation)
Nucleoside-analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI): zidovudine (AZT), didanosine (ddI), zalcitabine (ddC), stavudine (d4T), lamivudine (3TC)	Retroviruses (HIV)	Nucleoside analogue	Reverse transcriptase
Nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI): nevirapine, delavirdine	Retroviruses: human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)	Nucleoside analogue	Reverse transcriptase
Protease inhibitors: saquinavir, ritonavir, indinavir, nelfinavir	HIV	Peptide analogue	HIV protease
Ribavirin	Broad-spectrum: hepatitis C virus (HCV), herpes simplex virus (HSV), measles, mumps, Lassa fever	Triazole carboxamide	RNA mutagen
Amantadine/rimantadine	Influenza A	Tricyclic amine	Matrix protein/hemagglutinin
Neuraminidase inhibitors: oseltamivir, zanamivir	Influenza A and B	Ethyl esther pro-drug requiring hydrolysis for conversion to the active carboxylate form	Neuraminidase