Editing Antiviral drug (section)

===Antiviral targeting===
The general idea behind modern antiviral drug design is to identify viral proteins, or parts of proteins, that can be disabled.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=A History of Antivirals: Mechanisms, Classes, and Subtypes |url=https://pharmanewsintel.com/features/a-history-of-antivirals-mechanisms-classes-and-subtypes |access-date=January 7, 2024}}</ref> These "targets" should generally be as unlike any proteins or parts of proteins in humans as possible, to reduce the likelihood of side effects and toxicity.<ref name=":0" /> The targets should also be common across many strains of a virus, or even among different species of virus in the same family, so a single drug will have broad effectiveness. For example, a researcher might target a critical enzyme synthesized by the virus, but not by the patient, that is common across strains, and see what can be done to interfere with its operation.

Once targets are identified, candidate drugs can be selected, either from drugs already known to have appropriate effects or by actually designing the candidate at the molecular level with a [[computer-aided design]] program.

The target proteins can be manufactured in the lab for testing with candidate treatments by [[genetic engineering|inserting the gene]] that synthesizes the target protein into [[bacteria]] or other kinds of cells. The cells are then cultured for mass production of the protein, which can then be exposed to various treatment candidates and evaluated with "rapid screening" technologies.