Antiviral Protease Inhibitors
A special issue of Viruses (ISSN 1999-4915). This special issue belongs to the section "Viral Immunology, Vaccines, and Antivirals".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 40
Special Issue Editors
Interests: development, evaluation, and drug resistance of coronavirus protease inhibitors; virus–host interaction and viral antagonism of host immunity; rational design of live-attenuated vaccines against coronaviruses
Interests: drug discovery and pharmacology of SARS-CoV-2 antivirals; drug discovery and pharmacology of enterovirus antivirals; drug discovery and pharmacology of influenza antivirals; drug resistance and assay development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Viral proteases are essential for many viruses, driving polyprotein processing, virion maturation, and evasion of host immunity. Their central role makes them prime antiviral targets, successfully exploited in HIV, HCV, enteroviruses, monkeypox, and SARS-CoV-2 therapies.
This Special Issue will showcase the latest advances in antiviral protease inhibitor research, from drug repurposing and high-throughput assays to structure-guided or AI-driven design, resistance mechanisms, and combination therapies. We welcome original research and reviews, especially those offering fresh insights into inhibitor design, assay development, the structural biology of target–inhibitor interactions, antiviral mechanisms, and drug resistance.
Join us in highlighting breakthroughs that will shape the future of antiviral therapy. We look forward to your contributions.
Dr. Xufang Deng
Prof. Dr. Jun Wang
Guest Editors
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. Viruses is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). 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 drug discovery
- high-throughput screen
- structure-guided drug design
- artificial intelligence (AI)-based drug discovery
- drug resistance
- combination therapies
- antiviral assay development
- host-targeting antiviral
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