Introduction: Hepatitis B disease is caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV), which is a DNA virus that belongs to the Hepadnaviridae family. It is a considerable health burden, with 257 million active cases globally. Long-standing infection may create a fundamental cause of liver disease and chronic infections, including cirrhosis, hepatocellular, and carcinoma liver failure. There is an urgent need to develop novel, safe, and effective drug candidates with a novel mechanism of action, improved activity, efficacy, and cure rate.
Areas covered: Herein, the authors provide a concise report focusing on a general and cutting-edge overview of the current state of polycyclic pyridone-related anti-HBV agent patents from 2016 to 2018 and some future perspectives.
Expert opinion: In medicinal chemistry, high-throughput screening (HTS), hit-to-lead optimization (H2L), bioisosteric replacement, and scaffold hopping approaches are playing a major role in the discovery and development of HBV inhibitors. Developing polycyclic pyridone-related anti-HBV agents that could target host factors has attracted significant interest and attention in recent years.
Keywords: HBV inhibitors; Polycyclic pyridone; drug design; high-throughput screening; hit-to-lead optimization; medicinal chemistry; scaffold hopping.