Emerging treatments

Anti-adenoviral agents

Research is directed towards finding a treatment for adenovirus. Several HIV medicines and other novel molecules appear promising and have entered phase 2 clinical trials. An anti-adenoviral effect has been observed with zalcitabine, sanilbudine, stampidine, interferon beta, aganocide, and anti-osteopontin peptide. Anti-adenoviral activity occurs in nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (zalcitabine and sanilbudine) but not in non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors or protease inhibitors.[104][105] Another potential treatment is povidone-iodine (PVI). In one in vitro study, povidone-iodine was found to extinguish infectivity of free adenovirus after 10 minutes of exposure, but was less effective against intracellular adenovirus.[106] A prospective clinical trial in children found povidone-iodine ineffective against adenovirus, although another retrospective study showed that povidone-iodine safely improved recovery times compared with controls.[107][108] A combination of povidone-iodine and dexamethasone has been shown to produce a significant reduction in DNA copies by day 5.[109] Topical cobalt chelate CTC-96, or doxivir, showed anti-adenoviral activity in vitro.[110]

Tacrolimus or interferon alfa

One randomised, double-masked study has shown that both tacrolimus and interferon alfa-2b appear to be effective and safe in the treatment of recalcitrant vernal keratoconjunctivitis.[111] One meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials has shown that tacrolimus is effective in treating vernal keratoconjunctivitis.[112]

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