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Antiviral Drugs Discovery
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Antiviral Drugs Discovery

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pharmacology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 July 2025 | Viewed by 2563

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Dongwei Kang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, 44 West Culture Road, Jinan 250012, China
Interests: drug discovery; drug design; antiviral; HIV-1/AIDS
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Viral diseases seriously threaten global public health security and human life. AIDS, hepatitis B virus, influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and monkeypox have caused severe global public health problems. The rapid emergence of drug-resistant strains has greatly reduced the clinical efficacy of the approved drugs and has become a serious challenge in antiviral therapy. Therefore, developing broad-spectrum and highly effective antiviral drugs is an essential and urgent research topic in response to existing drug resistance and possible new viral infections in the future.

We welcome high-quality articles for submission to this Special Issue on topics including but not limited to the following:

  • The synthesis and biological evaluation of highly effective antiviral drugs against drug resistance;
  • Broad-spectrum antiviral inhibitors;
  • Antiviral immune modulators;
  • New technologies and methods in antiviral agent discovery;
  • Antiviral drugs with novel mechanisms and targets.

Prof. Dr. Dongwei Kang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • antiviral agents
  • organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry
  • biological activity
  • drug design and computational chemistry
  • drug discovery and development

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3146 KiB  
Article
Optimization of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro Inhibitors by a Structure-Based Multilevel Virtual Screening Method
by Lanlan Jing, Fabao Zhao, Lin Zheng, Bairu Meng, Shenghua Gao, Manon Laporte, Dirk Jochmans, Steven De Jonghe, Johan Neyts, Peng Zhan, Dongwei Kang and Xinyong Liu
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(2), 670; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26020670 - 14 Jan 2025
Viewed by 1193
Abstract
With the aim of developing novel anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs to address the ongoing evolution and emergence of drug-resistant strains, the reported SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitor WU-04 was selected as a lead to find novel, highly potent, and broad-spectrum inhibitors. Using a fragment-based multilevel virtual [...] Read more.
With the aim of developing novel anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs to address the ongoing evolution and emergence of drug-resistant strains, the reported SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitor WU-04 was selected as a lead to find novel, highly potent, and broad-spectrum inhibitors. Using a fragment-based multilevel virtual screening strategy, 15 hit compounds were identified and subsequently synthesized. Among them, A5 (IC50 = 1.05 μM), A6 (IC50 = 1.08 μM), and A9 (IC50 = 0.154 μM) demonstrated potent SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibition comparable to or slightly weaker than WU-04. Antiviral activity evaluations revealed that compound A9 exhibited the strongest antiviral activity with an EC50 value of 0.18 μM, quite comparable to the marketed drug Nirmatrelvir (EC50 = 0.123 μM) and inferior to WU-04 (EC50 = 0.042 μM). Molecular dynamics simulations elucidated the key interactions between compounds A5, A6, A9, and the binding pocket of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, providing valuable insights into their mechanisms of action. These findings identify compound A9 as a promising lead for anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antiviral Drugs Discovery)
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18 pages, 2776 KiB  
Article
Immune Modulatory Profile of the Pateamines PatA and Des-Methyl Des-Amino PatA
by Susanne Schiffmann, Marina Henke, Sophie Brünner, Alexandre Bennett, Yassin Yagubi, Francesca Magari, Michael J. Parnham and Arnold Grünweller
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(21), 11430; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms252111430 - 24 Oct 2024
Viewed by 922
Abstract
Pateamines act as inhibitors of the RNA helicase eIF4A and exhibit antiviral and anticancer properties. Recently, we observed that inhibition of eIF4A by rocaglates affects the immune response. To investigate whether the observed immunomodulatory effects are specific to rocaglates or the inhibition of [...] Read more.
Pateamines act as inhibitors of the RNA helicase eIF4A and exhibit antiviral and anticancer properties. Recently, we observed that inhibition of eIF4A by rocaglates affects the immune response. To investigate whether the observed immunomodulatory effects are specific to rocaglates or the inhibition of eIF4A, a comprehensive study was conducted on the influence of pateamines that exhibit the same inhibitory mode of action as rocaglates on various immune cells. The effects of pateamine A (PatA) and des-methyl des-amino pateamine A (DMDA) on the expression of surface markers, release of cytokines, cell proliferation, inflammatory mediators and metabolic activity in primary human monocyte-derived macrophages (MdM), T cells and B cells were assessed. Additionally, safety and bioavailability profiles were determined. DMDA revealed almost no immunomodulatory effects within the tested concentration range of 0.5–5 nM. PatA reduced B cell activation, as shown by reduced immune globulin release and decreased chemokine release from macrophages, while T cell function remained unaffected. Both DMDA and PatA showed low permeability in Caco-2 and Calu-3 cell barrier assays and no mutagenic potential. However, 10 nM PatA exhibited genotoxic potential, as shown by the micronucleus assay. In conclusion, DMDA had a good safety profile but exhibited low permeability, whereas PatA had a poor safety profile and also low permeability. The observed immunomodulatory effects of elF4A inhibitors on B cells appear to be target-specific. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antiviral Drugs Discovery)
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