Development of Lead Compounds as Fusion Inhibitors for Dengue Virus

摘要

Identification of antiviral agents is critical to the development of therapeutic treatments directed against dengue virus (DENV), for which there is no specific therapy. The structures of the dengue virus class II fusion envelope proteins (E) suggest several features that could be explored as targets for inhibition. This report describes the activities, methods and approaches used for the design and identification of chemical entities targeting the dengue virus fusion process mediated by the E glycoprotein. The compound were designed to target the essential pH dependent conformational changes that occurs in the envelope protein (E protein), by inhibiting the conformational rearrangement that allows the virus-host membrane fusion.