Facilitating Antiviral Drug Discovery Using Genetic and Evolutionary Knowledge
Over the course of human history, billions of people worldwide have been infected by various viruses. Despite rapid progress in the development of biomedical techniques, it is still a significant challenge to find promising new antiviral targets and drugs. In the past, antiviral drugs mainly targete...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-10-01
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| Series: | Viruses |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/13/11/2117 |
| _version_ | 1797508224003342336 |
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| author | Xuan Xu Qing-Ye Zhang Xin-Yi Chu Yuan Quan Bo-Min Lv Hong-Yu Zhang |
| author_facet | Xuan Xu Qing-Ye Zhang Xin-Yi Chu Yuan Quan Bo-Min Lv Hong-Yu Zhang |
| author_sort | Xuan Xu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Over the course of human history, billions of people worldwide have been infected by various viruses. Despite rapid progress in the development of biomedical techniques, it is still a significant challenge to find promising new antiviral targets and drugs. In the past, antiviral drugs mainly targeted viral proteins when they were used as part of treatment strategies. Since the virus mutation rate is much faster than that of the host, such drugs feature drug resistance and narrow-spectrum antiviral problems. Therefore, the targeting of host molecules has gradually become an important area of research for the development of antiviral drugs. In recent years, rapid advances in high-throughput sequencing techniques have enabled numerous genetic studies (such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS), clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) screening, etc.) for human diseases, providing valuable genetic and evolutionary resources. Furthermore, it has been revealed that successful drug targets exhibit similar genetic and evolutionary features, which are of great value in identifying promising drug targets and discovering new drugs. Considering these developments, in this article the authors propose a host-targeted antiviral drug discovery strategy based on knowledge of genetics and evolution. We first comprehensively summarized the genetic, subcellular location, and evolutionary features of the human genes that have been successfully used as antiviral targets. Next, the summarized features were used to screen novel druggable antiviral targets and to find potential antiviral drugs, in an attempt to promote the discovery of new antiviral drugs. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T04:59:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b984cdd4471a4579aa7553bc8ff59e09 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1999-4915 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T04:59:28Z |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Viruses |
| spelling | doaj.art-b984cdd4471a4579aa7553bc8ff59e092023-11-23T01:55:06ZengMDPI AGViruses1999-49152021-10-011311211710.3390/v13112117Facilitating Antiviral Drug Discovery Using Genetic and Evolutionary KnowledgeXuan Xu0Qing-Ye Zhang1Xin-Yi Chu2Yuan Quan3Bo-Min Lv4Hong-Yu Zhang5Hubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaHubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaHubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaHubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaHubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaHubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, ChinaOver the course of human history, billions of people worldwide have been infected by various viruses. Despite rapid progress in the development of biomedical techniques, it is still a significant challenge to find promising new antiviral targets and drugs. In the past, antiviral drugs mainly targeted viral proteins when they were used as part of treatment strategies. Since the virus mutation rate is much faster than that of the host, such drugs feature drug resistance and narrow-spectrum antiviral problems. Therefore, the targeting of host molecules has gradually become an important area of research for the development of antiviral drugs. In recent years, rapid advances in high-throughput sequencing techniques have enabled numerous genetic studies (such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS), clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) screening, etc.) for human diseases, providing valuable genetic and evolutionary resources. Furthermore, it has been revealed that successful drug targets exhibit similar genetic and evolutionary features, which are of great value in identifying promising drug targets and discovering new drugs. Considering these developments, in this article the authors propose a host-targeted antiviral drug discovery strategy based on knowledge of genetics and evolution. We first comprehensively summarized the genetic, subcellular location, and evolutionary features of the human genes that have been successfully used as antiviral targets. Next, the summarized features were used to screen novel druggable antiviral targets and to find potential antiviral drugs, in an attempt to promote the discovery of new antiviral drugs.https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/13/11/2117geneticsevolutionhost receptors |
| spellingShingle | Xuan Xu Qing-Ye Zhang Xin-Yi Chu Yuan Quan Bo-Min Lv Hong-Yu Zhang Facilitating Antiviral Drug Discovery Using Genetic and Evolutionary Knowledge Viruses genetics evolution host receptors |
| title | Facilitating Antiviral Drug Discovery Using Genetic and Evolutionary Knowledge |
| title_full | Facilitating Antiviral Drug Discovery Using Genetic and Evolutionary Knowledge |
| title_fullStr | Facilitating Antiviral Drug Discovery Using Genetic and Evolutionary Knowledge |
| title_full_unstemmed | Facilitating Antiviral Drug Discovery Using Genetic and Evolutionary Knowledge |
| title_short | Facilitating Antiviral Drug Discovery Using Genetic and Evolutionary Knowledge |
| title_sort | facilitating antiviral drug discovery using genetic and evolutionary knowledge |
| topic | genetics evolution host receptors |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/13/11/2117 |
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