Hepatitis C and Dengue viruses belong to the family of Flaviviridae. Viruses in this family are enveloped, have positive-sense RNA and are responsible for a variety of life threatening diseases. Hepatitis C virus is the major etiological agent of post-transfusion hepatitis worldwide. An estimated 3 % of the world's population is infected with HCV according to the World Health Organization. Infection with HCV will most regularly result in chronic hepatitis, which leads to liver cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and liver failure. Dengue is currently the most important viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes afflicting humans the world context. Clinical symptoms range from mild fevers to a severe haemorrhagic disease. To date neither specific antiviral treatments exist nor are there any vaccines available for both infections. Thus there is an urgent need for new therapies.

More than 170 million people worldwide are currently chronically infected with the Hepatitis C virus. Similarly, Dengue fever infects 50 million per year in central Africa. It is the same story for so many other viruses that are members of the flaviviridae family. Disproportionally to the severity of an infection with almost all members of Flaviviridae, no specific antiviral therapy is available today. There are drugs neither for the treatment nor for the prevention upon infection. Scientists have isolated various proteins and extensively study some of them in an attempt to get information that will eventually be combined to a strategy against the viruses. Herein, an effort is made to describe the current status of antiviral research within flaviviridae, homology modelling and structure based drug design techniques that may soon lead to new generation of stratagems against flaviviridae. Finally, insights into novel technologies in drug design technology are provided.

The Flaviviridae family of viruses, description, properties and complete genome bank of all family members

A brief introduction to the basic knowledge underlying modern molecular modelling