http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2951407/
In conclusion, treatment of virus-infected cells with PERLs demonstrated effective antiviral activity in three different viral systems—HCV, HIV, and HBV—because of decreased levels of cellular and virus-associated cholesterol. In each experiment, PERL treatment was more effective than lovastatin and therefore may be better suited for in vivo antiviral therapy. Furthermore, the potential use of PERLs for in vivo treatment of viral infections, as well as the frequent coinfections with the viruses tested here, eventually should include the encapsulation of other antiviral therapies, leading to enhanced treatment efficacy. Because of the host cell-based antiviral mechanism of action, we expect all clades and genotypes of the investigated viruses to respond to this treatment and the likelihood of the emergence of resistant viral escape mutants to be substantially lower than with conventional antiviral treatments.