Throughout history, viral diseases have been a serious threat that has
constantly jeopardized the global public health. Although great success has been
achieved in developing effective vaccines and antiviral drugs to combating them, new
viral pathogens are emerging and the old ones evolve to evade current therapeutic
options. Upon encountering a pathogenic virus, the host senses the invasion and
triggers complex innate and adaptive immune responses to cope with the infection.
Although pro-inflammatory responses are critical for the early control of viral
replication, excessive inflammation also causes severe injuries to the tissues, thereby
contributing to developing viral immunopathologies. Thus, glucocorticoids have been
used due to their potential role in controlling the inflammatory response, but,
unfortunately, corticosteroid administration has been shown to have a deleterious effect
in various viral infections. Therefore, the clinical outcome of the use of steroids in the
context of viral diseases is still controversial. Nevertheless, in the last decades, several
natural and synthetic steroids have been reported as antiviral agents. Recent findings
have demonstrated multiple physiological roles played by steroids during the course of
different viral infections. These results encourage the assessment of novel steroids as
antiviral and immunomodulatory entities. In this Chapter, we review the most recent
advances on this field, focusing on the opportunities that the understanding of the
interplay between viral infections and the steroids of the host might provide for the
development of new therapies.
Keywords: Antivirals, Antiviral steroids, Bile acids, Brassinosteroids, Broad-spectrum antivirals, Cholesterol, Cholesterol homeostasis, Dehydroepiandrosterone,
Ecdysteroids, Glucocorticoids, Host-pathogen interactions, Immune response,
Natural steroids, Nuclear receptors, Oxysterols, Synthetic steroids.
