Proteases and Kinases: Attractive Targets for Combating Infectious Diseases

Infectious diseases have haunted the human population for thousands of years. Although many breakthroughs have been made in the discovery of various treatments and cures for these diseases, multiple complexities enable them to continue to cause illness, disease and death. Evolution, for example, brings about mutations that cause the emergence of new pathogenic species. In addition, resistant species may emerge due to selective pressure of existing powerful antibiotics. The imminent possibility of new pathogenic strains forming and eventually threatening the human population verifies the urgent need for new, innovative strategies in fighting these pathogens. Here we review various important patents that have been licensed for drug development pertaining to protease and kinase inhibitors. Rather than being comprehensive, we have been selective in which patents to include. The goal is to inform the public at large of these new inventions in the pipeline and the status of development of these technologies into drugs to ultimately be used in a clinical setting.

Keywords: Patents, anti-infective agents, protease inhibitors, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, RAF kinase inhibitors, pharmaceutical industry