Strategies in the Design and Development of Antiviral Drugs

Dear Colleagues,

Viruses are among the most infectious pathogens, responsible for the highest number of deaths worldwide. Each year, mortality linked with viral infections, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), dengue virus, Japanese encephalitis virus, and Zika virus, has been remarkable, while new pathogenic viral strains or variants are emerging because of high genetic recombination or cross-species transmission, as is the case with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, there is an urgent need for the development of novel antiviral therapeutics that will allow health professionals to cure these viruses after infection or to combat the emerging viral infections.

Recently, advanced therapeutic synthetic drug molecules, bioactive, aptamers, peptides, and drug-conjugates have found extensive applications in the fields of drug discovery using both computational and experimental approaches. The perspective of using such therapeutic agents is to find the non-toxic, selective, and specific antiviral for a single genus or target more than one genotype of the target viruses simultaneously showing promising results to be considered for further clinical trials or applications.

In the present Special Issue entitled “Strategies in the Design and Development of Antiviral Drugs”, we are inviting original research, as well as review articles, which are related to the identification, synthesis, and evaluation of direct-acting antiviral or host-targeting agents that inhibit viral replication or pathogenesis. Furthermore, we also welcome the submission of mechanistic studies of new small organic molecules, metal complexes, and natural products, as well as studies on drug resistance, the in silico design of antiviral agents, and antiviral target validation.

Dr. Shiv Bharadwaj
Prof. Dr. Umesh Yadava
Dr. Amaresh Kumar Sahoo
Guest Editors

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