Potential importance of error catastrophe to the development of antiviral strategies for hantaviruses

Hantaviruses represent an important and growing source of disease emergence in both established and developing countries. The New World hantaviruses have been touted as potential biological weapons because of their lethality to humans and high infectivity as an aerosol. It is also important to acknowledge the threat that hantaviruses can represent to US troops that operate in a foreign territory endemic for hantavirus infection, as was demonstrated in the Korean War. Effective vaccines, immunotherapeutics and antivirals for the prophylaxis or treatment of hantaviral infections are not available. Recent evidence that hantaviruses are prone to error catastrophe opens the door to the development of new therapeutic strategies. Possible future directions for applying lethal mutagenesis as a strategy for the development of novel and more effective antiviral therapies for treatment of hantavirus infections are discussed. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.