The symptoms of
human adenovirus infections are generally mild and self-limiting. However, these
infections have been gaining importance in recent years because of a growing number of immunocompromised patients. Solid organ and hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients are subjected to severe immunosuppressive regimes and cannot efficaciously eliminate
virus infections. In these patients,
adenovirus infections can develop into deadly multi-organ disseminated disease. Presently, in the absence of approved
therapies, physicians rely on drugs developed for other purposes to treat
adenovirus infections. As there is a need for anti-adenoviral
therapies, researchers have been developing new agents and repurposing existing ones to treat
adenovirus infections. There are several small molecule drugs that are being tested for their efficacy against human adenoviruses; some of these have reached clinical trials, while others are still in the preclinical phase. Besides these compounds, research on
immunotherapy against adenoviral
infection has made significant progress, promising another modality for treatment. The availability of an animal model confirmed the activity of some drugs already in clinical use while proving that others are inactive. This led to the identification of several lead compounds that await further development. In the present article, we review the current status of anti-adenoviral
therapies and their advancement by in vivo studies in the Syrian hamster model.