The COVID-19 pandemic and its global impact on health and economy has altered public perception towards viral diseases. As nations have been struggling to control the current pandemic, there has been attempts to reevaluate our pandemic preparedness as a species on both scientific and policy making fronts. Last century witnessed at least six influenza pandemics, several coronavirus outbreaks including SARS C0V-2 and several Ebola outbreaks. In addition to advancements in surveillance to detect pathogens and improvements of public health system, a critical component of pandemic preparedness is the development of therapies and vaccines. Developing therapies that target multiple points in the viral lifecycle, could be a strategy to tackle future pandemics and emergence of variants. A detailed molecular and structural understanding of the mechanisms involved in the pathogen’s lifecycle, and their interaction with host proteins and viral mechanisms to escape the host immune system, is essential to achieve this goal.
The molecular understanding of biology and pathology of SARS-CoV-2 virus has been steadily advancing over the last two years. This has resulted in development of novel therapeutic strategies and pipelines, several of which are in different stages of preclinical or clinical development. Coupled with recent advancements in structural techniques such as CryoEM, and application of big data and artificial intelligence in biology, there has been an unprecedented accumulation of molecular and structural findings. With this research topic we aim to catch a glimpse of various scientific advancements happening currently, which results in a) Structural understanding of the molecular mechanisms of viruses which poses significant epidemic threat such as Paramyxoviruses (Ebola, NIPAH, Measles etc.), corona viruses, influenza viruses, Zika virus etc. b) Identification of novel druggable target sites with broad-spectrum potential c) Identification of novel drug scaffolds with antiviral properties.
The aim of this research topic is to cover promising research trends in structurally characterizing viral proteins and their interactions in’ viruses of pandemic concern’ and identifying and targeting unique structural landscapes as potential targets. Areas to be covered in the Research topic may include, but are not limited to:
• Identification and structural characterization of novel/unconventional host or viral targets.
• Structural insights on zoonotic or pandemic potential of emerging viruses.
• Molecular modelling and molecular dynamics simulations for identification of novel viral target sites or allosteric binding pockets.
• Molecular or structural findings pertaining to viral pathogenesis or viral-host interactions.
• Application of Structure-based virtual screening (SBVS) or ensemble docking to discover molecules with broad-spectrum viral activity.
• Identification or optimization of novel chemical scaffolds with broad-spectrum antiviral activity.
The COVID-19 pandemic and its global impact on health and economy has altered public perception towards viral diseases. As nations have been struggling to control the current pandemic, there has been attempts to reevaluate our pandemic preparedness as a species on both scientific and policy making fronts. Last century witnessed at least six influenza pandemics, several coronavirus outbreaks including SARS C0V-2 and several Ebola outbreaks. In addition to advancements in surveillance to detect pathogens and improvements of public health system, a critical component of pandemic preparedness is the development of therapies and vaccines. Developing therapies that target multiple points in the viral lifecycle, could be a strategy to tackle future pandemics and emergence of variants. A detailed molecular and structural understanding of the mechanisms involved in the pathogen’s lifecycle, and their interaction with host proteins and viral mechanisms to escape the host immune system, is essential to achieve this goal.
The molecular understanding of biology and pathology of SARS-CoV-2 virus has been steadily advancing over the last two years. This has resulted in development of novel therapeutic strategies and pipelines, several of which are in different stages of preclinical or clinical development. Coupled with recent advancements in structural techniques such as CryoEM, and application of big data and artificial intelligence in biology, there has been an unprecedented accumulation of molecular and structural findings. With this research topic we aim to catch a glimpse of various scientific advancements happening currently, which results in a) Structural understanding of the molecular mechanisms of viruses which poses significant epidemic threat such as Paramyxoviruses (Ebola, NIPAH, Measles etc.), corona viruses, influenza viruses, Zika virus etc. b) Identification of novel druggable target sites with broad-spectrum potential c) Identification of novel drug scaffolds with antiviral properties.
The aim of this research topic is to cover promising research trends in structurally characterizing viral proteins and their interactions in’ viruses of pandemic concern’ and identifying and targeting unique structural landscapes as potential targets. Areas to be covered in the Research topic may include, but are not limited to:
• Identification and structural characterization of novel/unconventional host or viral targets.
• Structural insights on zoonotic or pandemic potential of emerging viruses.
• Molecular modelling and molecular dynamics simulations for identification of novel viral target sites or allosteric binding pockets.
• Molecular or structural findings pertaining to viral pathogenesis or viral-host interactions.
• Application of Structure-based virtual screening (SBVS) or ensemble docking to discover molecules with broad-spectrum viral activity.
• Identification or optimization of novel chemical scaffolds with broad-spectrum antiviral activity.
