User talk:BMC RPS

Direct-acting antivirals
Hi and welcome to Wikipedia. Can you please discuss your changes to the article here before reverting. As I explained in my edit summary and again  on the Talk Page, despite most anti-viral drugs acting directly on viral replication, this term is only used in the context of hepatitis C virus infections.Graham Beards (talk) 09:37, 19 July 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi Graham, it is clearly true that this term is of particular relevance to HCV because DAA are core to HCV treatment, but the term is not restricted to HCV. Acyclovir, letermovir, AZT etc etc are all direct-acting antivirals. The name already describes the meaning... you can also find a simple definition here: https://uwm.edu/drug-discovery/projects/direct-acting-antivirals-for-pandemic-prevention/.
 * A quick search of PubMed shows that the term also used within the scientific community for other viruses including COVID (SARS-CoV-2), HBV, dengue virus, enteroviruses etc etc. The describes an aspect of the mechanism of action, and is not indication specific. see: PMID: 32088166, PMID: 34271264, PMID: 33038433, PMID: 33622961, PMID: 34036784, PMID: 32495848, PMID: 26119058. BMC RPS (talk) 11:03, 19 July 2022 (UTC)


 * Yes, I see your point. The problem is compliance with WP:MEDRS. A PubMed search for "directing acting anti-virals" and selecting only WP:MEDRS compliant papers (in other words review articles) returns hepatitis C articles. As you know, the term was coined to differentiate DAA dugs from interferons. For the DAA article we should stress this otherwise there is no point to having the article when we have Antiviral drug. I think all anti-viral drugs these days are "direct-acting", which makes the term somewhat redundant in a the broader context. But I'm open to thoughts and counter arguments. Graham Beards (talk) 11:22, 19 July 2022 (UTC)
 * My intention was to distinguish from indirect mechanisms of action. That distinction is absolutely not specific to HCV... Also other non-IFN substances have been described in the literature as antivirals. See parapoxvirus ovis. I would like to leave the HCV information in, but also clarify that the term is not HCV-specific and start with the real meaning, then give an historical context, ie, it has been used to differentiate between direct and indirect mechanisms of action, particularly in the HCV indication. The distinction between direct vs indirect remains relevant... immune modulators are still current (also in COVID research) and indirect. BMC RPS (talk) 11:34, 19 July 2022 (UTC)
 * We can overcome the problem by saying that historically the term was used solely for hep c but now is entering general use to differentiate drugs that act on specific stages of viral replication from those drugs that act on the cells such as interferons for example. Immune modulators are not antivirals in my view. Graham Beards (talk) 11:41, 19 July 2022 (UTC)